


Full Deck

by FoxOnPie



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, For Want of a Nail, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2018-11-22 12:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11380527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxOnPie/pseuds/FoxOnPie
Summary: "You truly are interesting. Under different circumstances, we could have been great rivals, or perhaps even friends." Either of those would be ideal, but let's see what happens when Goro and Ren are brothers.





	1. Life has Changed

_**November XX, 20XX** _

"Yes, sir, it'll be done in an instant, no need to worry." A young man spoke these words into a cell phone as he walked through the Tokyo police station. "Yes, everything's taken care of. That prosecutor wasn't able to accomplish anything, and as for his associates, well… they'll be dealt with with as much ease as him, that's for certain. I'll call you again when it's done. Goodbye." Ending the conversation, he hung up his cell phone, shoved it into his pocket, and let out a small laugh to himself.

_Calm down, Goro, don't lose yourself, here,_ he thought to himself as he did just that. _You don't know who might be watching. Gotta keep a level head and let the world think you're still just Goro Akechi, ace detective, hero of Japan, everyone's golden boy, but especially_ his _! Just keep up that image until you get into the room. After that, well… that's when it all goes down._

* * *

Making his way underground, Goro soon found himself at his destination, the interrogation room. The guard standing outside looked at him for three seconds before shooting him a knowing glance and opening the door for him. When the door closed behind him, Goro took a look forward and saw the person he was dealing with: a teenager roughly his age wearing a high school uniform breathing heavily at a desk. Goro smiled wide at the sight of him, for he knew this person well. This was Joker, leader of the infamous Phantom Thieves of Hearts and the most wanted man in the country. Not only that, he was also Ren Amamiya, local high school junior on probation for assault. Not only that, but there was one other thing that Ren was.

"Good evening, Ren. How's my favorite brother doing?" He was Goro's brother.

"..." Ren merely looked at Goro, dazed.

"Cat got your tongue, Ren? Well, that's no surprise. You've certainly seen better days. Going off of those bruises on your face and wrists, the guys who were in here were _very_ rough with you, even making your handcuffs too tight. Not only that, but…" Looking down, Goro saw an empty syringe on the ground near Ren's feet,

"They even drugged you! Wow! They're not messing around, huh! I guess these are the kind of perks that the _almighty leader of the Phantom Thieves_ is entitled to."

"...Goro," A tired, raspy voice escaped Ren's lips.

"Oh? Have you regained some clarity, Ren? What is it? What do you want to tell me?"

"...Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

In response to this, Goro let out a stream of hearty laughter, the man clutching his sides from the ferocity of it.

"The drugs start wearing off, and _that's_ the first thing you say?! That is _so_ you, Ren! Ahahahahahaha! And you know what? Know what?

"It's both, actually." Regaining his composure, Goro pulled a small pistol out of his pocket and pointed it at Ren's head, the teen having just enough clarity to look at it in shock.

"What the hell is this…"

"It's a gun…? We use them all the time…?"

"You know what I mean. What are you trying to do, here…?"

"Oh, right, of course. That's simple, really: I'm going to kill you. I'm going to take this gun, shove it in your mouth, and blow your brains out all over the nice, clean floor. After that, I'm going to do the same thing to each and every one of your friends-"

" _Our_ friends," Ren interjected, his glazed eyes gaining a steeled resolve to them.

" _Your_ friends," Goro repeated, his words now laced with malice. "To think that I actually had to act like I cared about those idiots for half a year. The only thing more humiliating is the fact that they all actually bought into it. Honestly, death is too much of a mercy for them."

"Goro!" Ren stood up from his chair and took a few steps towards Goro only to stumble in place and stop in an instant.

"All of that can be avoided, though. All you have to do is make a little deal with me: join forces with me, and I'll make up some story about the Phantom Thieves using their witchcraft, or whatever the sheeple call what we did, to escape from custody. How does that sound?"

"Like shit," Ren snarled at him. "How can you even do this, Goro? How can you work with that bastard after everything he's done… and expect me to just do the same?!"

"You don't understand. You've _never_ understood."

"I understand that you're a coward." And that's when Goro put his gun away and punched Ren in the face. Ren, in turn, followed this by driving his own fist into Goro's face.

"God… dammit!" Goro shouted, punching Ren in the face a second time, this time with enough force to send him to the ground. "Why the hell do you always have to make things so difficult?! Always going against the crowd, always making a scene for your so called 'justice'... it's so annoying!

"It's so goddamn annoying!" Once more, Goro pulled out his gun and pointed it at Ren, this time holding it with much more ferocity. In spite of this, Ren merely looked at him with a mixture of anger and indifference.

"What was it all for, Goro? Everything we did this year… all the fighting, all the bonding… what was the point of it all if it was going to lead us, here?"

"...I don't even know, anymore." Goro said this with a solemn expression, barely even looking Ren in the face.

Then a blue butterfly appeared between them, catching both of their attention for a moment. That was certain to cut the tension.

" _..You are held captive,"_ a voice called out from nowhere. Mysterious, yet oddly familiar, Goro thought. " _Prisoners of fate to a future that has been sealed in advance. This is truly an unjust game... Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you..._

" _...I beg you. Please overcome this game... and save the world... The key to victory lies within the memories of your bonds—the truth that you and your friends grasped. It all began that day... when the game was started half a year ago... For the sake of your world's future... as well as your own... you must remember…"_

* * *

_**April 09, 20XX** _

"How long do you feel like sleeping, Akechi?" The stern voice of the senior detective woke Goro Akechi up with a start.

"My… My apologies…" Goro muttered underneath the laughter of fellow officers. He didn't usually fall asleep during work on account of always making sure to get at least eight hours of sleep every night, but for some reason, he couldn't stay awake for a brief moment, back there.

"As I was saying, at the moment, we still don't have any leads on the sudden uprise of incidents the public has dubbed 'mental shutdowns' and 'psychotic breakdowns.' While we have numerous persons of interest, there isn't enough to go on for a full-scale investigation. Akechi, would you mind reminding us of one of our persons of interest, _without_ looking at your file?"

_Should have seen that coming,_ Goro thought to himself. _Using my time asleep as a way to embarrass me, even further. Too bad I'm not an idiot like the rest of these people._ "Kunikazu Okumura, CEO of Okumura Foods. Several victims of the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns were people whose businesses either competed directly with Okumura Foods or blatantly badmouthed them. There's no solid evidence to make this anything more than a coincidence, but it's at least something. Did I get it all right, sir?"

"..." The disgruntled look on the senior detective's face pointed to a definite "Yes." "That's all for today. Everyone's dismissed." With that, Goro and all the other officers exited the conference room, the rest of the people barely even making eye contact with Goro. It's just jealousy, Goro told himself. They're just upset that some _kid_ is making them look like idiots, even when he's half-asleep. I may not be a Detective Prince, but at least I know how to do my job. That's more than can be said for all of you.

"Oh, wow, look at the time." Goro came out of his internal monologue when he noticed a clock on the wall of the police station. "I better get going; don't want to keep him waiting."

* * *

"Even though I say that, _he's_ the one keeping _me_ waiting." After the meeting ended, Goro exited the police station and made his way to the Shibuya train station, the young man having made plans earlier in the week to meet someone there. They were supposed to have arrived at around four in the afternoon, but looking at his phone, Goro saw that it had been almost an hour since the agreed upon time.

"What in the world?" Speaking of Goro's phone, something else that caught his attention was the appearance of an app, one that he had no memory of installing onto his phone. It looked like a red eyeball with a black, star-shaped pupil surrounded by a jagged red and black border. When Goro pressed the icon, the name of the app didn't appear and all that happened was that it got larger in size.

"Weird…" Goro didn't think twice about uninstalling the app from his phone. "I hope that's not a virus, or anything…"

"I hope so, too. Same thing happened on my phone; it was pretty weird."

"You, too? Maybe it _is_ a virus, then. Could Medjed be up to something, again?"

"'Medjed'? What's that supposed to be?"

"Come on, I've told you about them before, Ren. Medjed is..." It was at this moment that Goro realized he was talking to someone.

"Yo." Not just any someone, though. This particular someone, wearing the black blazer and plaid pants of Shujin Academy, was Ren Amamiya, someone who was more than just a lifelong friend of Goro's.

"Ren! Great to see you! How's my favorite brother doing?" He was also his brother.

"Alright, considering everything. Also, last time I checked, I was your _only_ brother."

"Yeah, yeah. What's with the glasses? You need them, now?"

"No, my vision's fine. They just make me look chic."

"Oh, so you're one of _those_ people."

"Excuse _me_ for having style."

"Oh, shut up," Goro said, brushing Ren's remark aside to pull him into a hug, one that was reciprocated and ended several seconds later. "Come on, let's get an early dinner; you must be hungry, right?"

"I could eat. The Big Bang Burgers any better in the city?" Ren asked, Goro immediately gaining a disapproving look on his face.

"Yeah, we're going to do a little better than that. I'm also going to have to ask you to never suggest something like that, again."

* * *

"I _guess_ this is better than Big Bang Burger, Goro." That was the only thing Ren had to say when Goro brought them to his restaurant of choice. The restaurant, one simply called "Pneuma," was a hole in the wall-type of restaurant with an air of class that didn't fit its classification. The tables were draped in fancy silk sheets and illuminated by classy mood lighting, the sophistication emphasised further by the classical music playing through the restaurant. A mustachioed _maître d_ welcomed the two of them with a smile and, after conversing with Goro for a minute, brought them to a table in the center of the room, not even needing a single yen of bribery.

"You sure seemed friendly with that guy, Goro."

"When you spend so much of your time visiting all the finest restaurants in the city, you tend to wind up befriending the people who work there." Goro said, putting a napkin down on his lap. "Not doing so when you see them so many times is just bad manners. Plus, if you make them think you like them, you eventually start getting all sorts of perks."

"Always with the ulterior motive; fourth grade softball, all over again," Ren said, using a napkin to wipe some dirt off of his hands before putting it back on the table.

It was very easy for one to find contrast between Goro and Ren. Where Goro sat with perfect posture, Ren, while not acting completely slovenly, sat with a very visible slouch. Where Goro's brown hair fell into a short, clean cut, Ren's was a curly mess that would look like that, even if he actually tried using product. Goro often put formal clothing into his everyday selection, his current outfit consisting of a double-breasted silver sport coat, dress pants, and black gloves, and he always looked comfortable in those clothes. Ren, on the other hand, was never relaxed in formal wear, much rather preferring the comfort of casual clothing; even now, he kept pulling on the collar of his uniform every few seconds to let some air flow into his chest. Nevertheless, it was this kind of contrast that helped the two of them get along and was welcomed with open arms.

"Uniform a little tight, Ren?"

"'Little' is an understatement, Goro. At least the one I wore at my old school let me breathe. Can't wait for the summer months when I can at least ditch the blazer."

"It's not _that_ bad; I get by, just fine," Goro said, stopping to take a sip of water. "Still, to think that we're going to the same school, again. We haven't done that since junior high, right? That's pretty exciting."

"Be more exciting if there were actually good circumstances behind it," Ren said, forcing Goro's smile to drop like a hot potato in the butteriest of butter fingers.

"Right.

"I tried to do something, Ren. The picosecond I was free, I got your case file faxed over to me and went over every inch of it. It was too much for me, though. That guy who sued you had so much money and so many connections that I couldn't even get his name and face from the higher-ups. He went to so much trouble to punish you for something that wasn't even your fault..." Underneath the table, Goro started locking his napkin in a vice grip.

"It makes me sick. Police officers like myself are supposed to prevent situations like this, yet we… yet _I_ was completely powerless. Just thinking about how that bastard was able to get away from this without a scratch on him because of how powerless I was-"

"Goro, stop," Ren cut in, putting an arm out in front of himself. "You didn't fail me. I know you did everything you could, so you don't have to beat yourself up for it. Yeah, this whole thing sucks, but there's nothing we can do about it, so… I just need to make the most of it."

"Right, sorry," Goro said, releasing his napkin. "Let's just order something, assuming my outburst didn't ruin your appetite."

"It'd take a lot more than that to ruin _my_ appetite," Ren said with a smile that put Goro's mind at ease.

_Above all else, I'm just glad that one of us can be strong._

* * *

"Home sweet home. Well, I guess that's the case for the both of us, now." After the brief moment of discourse, Goro and Ren enjoyed a pleasant meal of lively conversations and dishes so fancy and delectable that the mere act of describing them would be insulting. Following that, the two of them made their way to Goro's loft in the city, where Ren would be living for the next year.

"Nice place you got here," Ren said, following a whistle. "Giant flat screen, Kirishima designer couch and chairs, dimmer switches. I guess you _do_ have some style."

"I don't get why that's surprising," Goro said, ignoring Ren's eyeroll. "Your stuff was dropped off earlier, and I put it in the room down the hall on the far left. My room's right across from there, and please don't go into the room right next to mine. That's my study."

"You have a study? What do you _do_ in there?"

"Exactly what the name implies, and I reiterate, don't go in there."

"Is the stuff you study porn?"

Goro merely furrowed his brow in response to this.

"Fine, fine, keep your secrets. Not a big deal."

"Thank you. Now it's not _too_ late, but we're meeting with the principal of Shujin and your homeroom teacher tomorrow, so you should get some sleep, soon."

"Whatever you say, Mom."

"Love you too, bro," Goro said with a faux smile. Ren said nothing as he walked to his apparent room. Once Ren entered and closed the door behind him, Goro took the moment to sit down on the couch and let his head fall down in a solemn air.

"A whole year, together… A whole year of trying to make things right…"

* * *

It should go without saying that despite referring to each other as brothers, Goro Akechi and Ren Amamiya weren't actually brothers. Goro was born into a single parent home, his biological father having abandoned his mother not long after his conception. Even though they were poor and shamed by the community for being a broken family, Goro's mother did her best to raise him right. When she died, no one was more upset than Goro, mainly because he was the only person who actually would be upset.

After that, what followed were several years of Goro being bounced around from foster home to foster home, none of them ever being able to stick. Some were distant relatives only looking for government stipends, others were strangers who treated him like a piece of furniture the second child services weren't around. There wasn't really any time after his mother's death where Goro thought that he was truly happy. At least, of course, until he was adopted into the Amamiya family.

The Amamiyas were a family of three who lived in the suburbs of Kyoto. An unassuming bunch who, for an eight-year old Goro, were a Godsend. The father, Raizo Amamiya, had a stern attitude that masked an overall kind person who treated everyone with respect, never raised a hand in anger, and always taught his family to do the right thing for others. The mother, Runa Amamiya, had a kindly disposition that masked nothing on account of her being a person who wore her heart on her sleeve, showered companions with affection and praise just for fun, and always taught her family to always have a positive outlook on life. The son, Ren Amamiya, had a quiet personality that masked a person who thought hard about everything, acted only when necessary, and wasn't afraid to speak his mind.

Out of the three of them, it was Ren who Goro bonded with the fastest. While it didn't take long for Goro to accept that Raizo and Runa's kindness was genuine, too many past experiences with less than stellar guardians made it difficult for Goro to open up to them as fast as he would've liked. However, those guardians were always childless adults who never even considered how important raising a child could be, a clear factor in why they always turned out so poorly. As a result, Goro had no prior biases towards what it would be like to have a sibling, giving him a fresh start with Ren.

If Goro had to guess when things truly took off, it would have to have been when a seven-year old Ren started a certain conversation on a certain day.

"I'm pretty sure you were adopted because of your name," Ren said.

"My name?" An eight-year old Goro asked on a certain day in response to this.

"Yep. Dad's 'Raizo,' which has 'Ra,' Mom's 'Runa,' which has 'Ru,' I'm 'Ren' which has 'Re,' and you're 'Goro,' which has 'Ro.' It's like they're trying to have a complete set, or something."

"Is that right? I guess they'll just be biding their time until they can add a 'Rikichi' or 'Rinshou' to the family, then. I wonder if they'll even notice me until that happen."

"Do you not know what a joke is, or something?"

"I'm sorry?" Goro asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why would I actually mean any of that stuff? What kind of people would adopt someone just to complete some kind of collection?"

"You'd be surprised by some of the reasons a person would take in an orphan." Goro looked at Ren in anticipation for another response, but he said nothing.

Instead, Ren walked over to Goro and gave him a quick, yet tight embrace.

"Is that alright, Goro?"

"Yes, that's alright," Goro said with a smile.

From that moment onward, Goro and Ren were the best of brothers and the best of friends, virtually inseparable from one another. Their only real separation came when Goro moved to Tokyo to go to high school, but that was a situation out of his control. Even living hundreds of miles apart from each other, the two of them still managed to stay in contact with one another, however limited the opportunities for that were between their respective schoolings and Goro's own work as a detective.

Then came what Goro considered the worst day of his life. A month prior, not long after the school year had ended, Goro received a rare call from his adoptive father in which he was told that Ren had been arrested. That he had attacked an innocent man on the street for seemingly no reason and was moments from doing the same to a passing woman. That he was being sued for assault, was expelled from his school, and was on the verge of being sent to juvenile hall.

It took all Goro had within him to not storm out of the police station and hop onto the next bullet train to Kyoto, an act made slightly easier by the chief making him finish up the latest mental shutdown case. Once that was taken care of, Goro called his family back to get Ren's side of the story. According to Ren, the man in question was drunk and trying to force a woman to get into a car with him. All Ren did was tell him to stop, but the man tripped over his own two feet and, in a fit of rage, blamed Ren and forced the woman to say that he was attacked.

_This can work,_ Goro told himself. _Ren's innocent! That means there's a chance._

Keeping this thought in mind, Goro had a copy of the case file faxed over from Kyoto so he could look over every millimeter of it and figure out what sort of help he could provide as an officer of the law.

The answer, in this case, was none. From looking over the case file and calling the chief of police in Ren's town, Goro discovered that the person Ren allegedly assaulted had somehow arranged it so his name was completely redacted from the record, so no one actually even knew who was suing Ren. Not only that, but the man had hired a large team of lawyers just to take down a high school student, allowing Goro to conclude that he was an extremely petty, well-connected individual, the worst kind of person to have a lot of cash.

_There's nothing I can do,_ he concluded. _Rens innocent, but he has no chance. Some entitled asshole is going to ruin his life for no reason, and I'm completely powerless! Do I really have to just sit back and watch Ren fall apart?!_

The trial came and passed. Just as Goro predicted, the court was rigged against Ren and he was pronounced guilty, without hesitation. However, all was not lost. When Goro initially went over the case, he had, in his state of rage, forgotten about the fact that this was Ren's first offense. That, combined with him being a minor, made the judge express a bit of leniency and give Ren a chance: spend a year on probation without getting into any trouble, and his record would be cleared.

It seemed simple enough, but how, exactly, was Ren supposed to carry out this sentence? Ren still needed to go to school (dropping out was probably not the best course of action, given the circumstances), but now that he had been marked a criminal, no school in Kyoto would be willing to accept him. Even if there was such a school, Ren would still be forced to spend a year being judged and ridiculed by his peers for a crime he didn't commit. Such an environment would make it impossible for him to properly survive a year of probation; for all Goro knew, the people there might even conspire against Ren. No, Goro couldn't allow for Ren to have to deal with that.

* * *

_That's why Ren's living with me,_ Goro thought to himself. _Part of Ren's probation calls for a guardian to monitor his rehabilitation, and as soon as the judge learned that his brother was the would be Second Detective Prince, it was easy for me to get the job. Thanks to that, Ren was able to leave Kyoto, spend his year of probation at a Tokyo school without judgemental eyes, and, as far as the court is concerned, "be under the watchful eyes of a truly upstanding individual." What a joke._

"You're going to get through this, Ren," Goro said. "I'm going to do everything I can to help you, to make sure you can survive this. You can count on at least that much."

Finished with his aside, Goro stood up from the couch and headed off towards his room. In the midst of the walk, Goro pulled out his phone to check his email and see if he had any missed calls. Neither were present on his phone, but what was present, curiously enough, was the mysterious app he had deleted, earlier that day.

"What the hell? Is it _really_ some kind of virus?" Not willing to ponder the thought for more than three seconds, Goro deleted the app, once again.

"If it shows up a third time, I should probably get a new phone. Hope this isn't happening with Ren's phone, at least."

Letting the sentence fall off into the air, Goro shoved his phone back into his pocket and continued walking to his room. After entering it, Goro changed into Kirishima silk pajamas, engaged in five minutes of calisthenics, and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

_**XXXXXXXXXX** _

"Goro! Hey, Goro! Wake up!" Someone's voice woke Goro up from his slumber. Goro wished that wasn't the case, though, because his current location was decidedly not his room, it was a jail cell padded with what appeared to be blue leather. The rattling of chains and the dripping of water in a toilet quickly caught Goro's attention, but they were quickly drowned out by the sound of singing that put even the finest opera houses to shame accompanied by a piano that made even the best look like amateurs.

_Just what sort of dream am I having?_ was the first thought to enter Goro's mind. _Why am I in a jail cell listening to opera music and…_ It was here that Goro took a moment to look at his current attire, a stereotypical prisoner's uniform and a pair of old style handcuffs locked around his wrists. _This better be a dream, because that's the only way I'd tolerate having someone take my Kirishima clothing away from me._

"If you're awake, then get over here, Goro!" There was that voice again, as loud and obnoxious as it was, before.

_I'm coming! Just shut up, disembodied dream voice!_ Goro stood up from the cold bench that had replaced his bed and moved towards the bars of his cell, a process that took more effort than walking typically did on account of the apparent ball and chain around his right ankle. Once Goro reached the bars, he saw that the interior of the area was a circular bricked floor, the bricks the same blue as the leather padding of his cell, and the floor was surrounded by jail cells identical to his own.

_I don't see anyone across from me. Is the owner of that voice in a cell next to mine? How am I supposed to look, though?_ Goro looked around the cell for something that could be used to solve the problem. The walls? Nothing. Immediately outside of the cell? Nothing. On the floor? Something. The something being a piece of reflective glass. Convenient, but as Goro picked it up from the ground, he didn't choose to complain.

_Okay, let's see, now…_ Goro thought to himself as he stuck the glass outside of the cell. _Who, exactly, is joining me in this dream…_ After a few seconds of angling the glass, a figure was finally captured within it. A figure dressed the same as Goro. A figure Goro knew all too well.

"Ren?!"

"I knew that was your snoring, Goro," Ren said. "Took you long enough to get over here. I mean, I'm assuming you got one of these ball and chain things on your leg, too, but still, you'd think the people in my dreams would be more cooperative."

"What are you doing here? I know that if I ever dreamed up something like this, I'd never allow for my subconscious to put you in it, with me. ...Hold on. Back up. Did you say this was _your_ dream? This is _my_ dream, Ren."

"No, it's not?" Ren responded, eyebrow raised in a quizzical manner. "This is _my_ dream, Goro. I think I'd be able to tell."

"No, you wouldn't. You wouldn't be able to tell because this is _my_ dream, something that I'm able to figure out because I'm the one experiencing it."

"See, the thing about that is… you're wrong."

"Will you just-"

""Ahem!"" One voice, two voices, dual voices interrupted the two of them, in spite of no one other than Goro and Ren being present. Or, at least, that was the case up until a second ago. Now, standing in front of Goro and Ren's cells were two little girls dressed like prison guards (if prison guards wore dark blue shirts and black shorts, of course). Both girls had silver hair, one done up in buns, the other tied into a braid. Braid, the one in front of Goro's cell, wore a hat with the letters "O," "Y," "O," and "O" on it and held a clipboard in a gloved hand while Buns, the one in front of Ren's cell, wore a hat with the letters "X," "M," "R," and "N" on it and held a riding crop in a similarly gloved hand. The final point of commonality between the two of them was the fact that they both stared at Goro and Ren with a single golden eye, Braid's right, Buns' left, and their other eyes were covered in an eyepatch with the letter "V" on it.

"So which one of us dreamt up the tiny cosplayers?" Ren asked.

"I have no idea," Goro said before turning his attention back to the two girls.

"Well, well, well, looks like the Inmates have finally come to," Buns said.

"'Inmates'? Is that why we're locked up in these cages?" Ren asked. "What the hell did we do to deserve this?"

"Do not fret over this," Braid said. "The two of you in reality are currently fast asleep. You two are only experiencing this as a dream."

"Wait, so is this a dream, or isn't it?"

No response.

"Ren and I both think that we're the ones having a dream, but that doesn't make sense. And now that you're saying we're 'experiencing' this as a dream. What's that supposed to mean?"

No response.

"Answer me!" The response was Braid slamming her clipboard against the bars of his cell, the vibrations making him step back a bit.

"Settle down, Inmate!" Buns shouted. "And you and your brother stand up straight! You're in the presence of our master!"

"'Master'?" Ren asked.

The girls still gave no response. In lieu of one, they both turned around and stepped aside so the two brothers could better see what was in front of them. The "what," in this case, was no longer just more cells. In the center of the room, where there once was nothing, there was now a wooden desk with a balding man sitting at it dressed in a black suit and white gloves. In contrast to the girls, that was essentially the only thing that looked normal about his appearance when one factored in his bulging, bloodshot eyes and a nose so massive that it looked like something one would see on the mythical tengu.

"Tricksters…" the man started, his voice booming, his mouth never moving from a ghastly grin as he extended an arm out towards Goro and Ren, "welcome to my Velvet Room."

_Velvet Room? What the hell is a Velvet Room supposed to be?_ Goro thought.

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance," the man continued. "This place exist between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those bound by a 'contract' may enter. My name is Igor, and I am the master of this place, remember it well.

"I summoned the two of you here to speak of important matters. They involve your lives, as well."

"What?!" Goro shouted. _Our lives… Ren's life?!_

"Let us out of here!" Ren shouted. In response, Buns banged her riding crop, one that was apparently electrified, against the bars of his cell, forcing him to step back.

"Know your place, Inmate! Who do you think you're talking to?!" Buns shouted. Through his piece of glass, Goro could see that Ren had calmed himself down.

"Still, this is a surprise…" Igor said. "This room reflects the state of the heart of its guest. To think that it would become a prison. Even more surprising, however, is that it would house two guests, at once. Ren Amamiya… Goro Akechi, you truly are 'prisoners' of fate. In the near future, there is no doubt that ruin awaits the two of you.

"'Ruin'?!" Goro shouted, panicked eyes glancing at the glass in his hands.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Ren asked.

"Worry not. There is a means to oppose such a fate," Igor said. "The two of you must be rehabilitated… rehabilitated towards freedom. That is your only means to avoid ruin. Do the two of you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world?"

"I'd rather avoid ruin..." Ren said.

_What the hell is even going on here?_ Goro, on the other hand, was less decisive.

_Ruin? Rehabilitation? Distortion of the world? It's like we're being asked to save the world, or something. Us! Ridiculous!_

_Even still, why do I care? This should all just be a dream, none of it should even matter, yet I can't stop myself from feeling anxious. Why, though? That doesn't make sense, so why am I doing it? Why am I…_

"...Same here. Ruin would probably suck."

"Very well," Igor said. "Allow me to observe the path of your rehabilitation." As Igor finished his statement, Braid and Buns turned back around towards Goro and Ren.

"Ah, pardon me for not introducing the others. In front of you, Ren, is Caroline. In front of you, Goro, is Justine. They serve as wardens, here."

""'Wardens'?"" Goro and Ren repeated.

"Hmph! Try and struggle as hard as you like," Caroline said.

"The duty of us wardens is to protect inmates," Justine said. "We are also your collaborators. That is, if you remain obedient."

"I shall explain the roles of these two at another occasion," Igor said, as if he expected to see them, again. "Now, then, it seems the night is waning… it is almost time. Take your time to slowly come to understand this place. We will surely meet again, eventually…"

"What are you talking abo-" Before Ren could finish his statement, a bell sounded throughout the room.

"It appears that our time is up," Justine said.

"You've gotta be kidding me!"

"As if," Caroline said. "Now hurry up and go back to sleep."

"Hold on!" Goro shouted. "I still have tons of questions! You better answer them, or-" Before Goro could finish, he was already thrown back into sleep.

* * *

**So this is the first time I'm writing fanfiction in a long ass while. Let's see if I'm any good at it.**


	2. Ren Amamiya and Goro Akechi

**Quick heads up, but the first chapter has been edited to replace Akira Kurusu's name with his now canon name of Ren Amamiya.**

* * *

_**April 10, 20XX** _

Ren awoke from his slumber with all of his synapses on fire and his body drenched in a cold sweat.

_Last night must still be getting to me,_ Ren told himself. _I need a shower. It'll help me think, and it'll help me not stink._ That thought in mind, Ren walked out of his room and stepped into the shower, wasting no time to try and use hot water to try and calm himself.

_What the hell_ was _that?_ Apparently, it was to no avail. _That dream was just… insane. That Velvet Room place, those Frankenstein people, and all that crap about saving the world, or whatever? I mean, that last part sounds pretty cool, but the other stuff was just plain creepy. I probably wouldn't even care so much about this if it didn't feel so damn real… or if Goro wasn't there._

Five minutes had gone by, so Ren had decided that that was enough cleanliness for one morning and stepped out of the shower.

_A dream that felt too ominous and lifelike to actually be a dream… and Goro was in it. What is that supposed to mean? Was he just part of the dream-like thing? Then why did he keep insisting that_ he _was the one having the dream, and not me? Unless that actually_ was _him. Why would we both be there, though? Some sort of weird adoptive sibling telepathy, or something? That never worked at the talent show, though._

A myriad of thoughts swelled through Ren's mind as he returned to his room to dry off.

_I don't even know what could've caused something like that. That weird app that kept appearing on my phone? Anxiety from this whole situation? The veal I ate for dinner, yesterday? Oh, forget it. I'm not gonna get anywhere by worrying about this._ Putting the thought aside, Ren stepped over to his closet and dressed himself in his Shujin attire, taking only a moment to look at himself in the mirror and confirm that the outfit still made him look like a tool.

"Ren?" A voice came out from the other side of the door. It was Goro's. "You finish dressing yourself? We gotta go meet the principal in half an hour, so you should eat something."

"Yeah, I'm done," Ren said. He then opened his door to find Goro standing in the hall dressed in his work attire from yesterday, as opposed to a similar school uniform. "So do I _not_ have to wear this monkey suit, then?"

"No, you do. I'm only not wearing mine because I have to head to work right after the meeting," Goro said.

"So am I taking the train back here, then?"

"Don't worry about that. I've already called in a favor from an acquaintance of mine, and he'll be picking you up after the meeting. Pretty cool, right?" Goro said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Why are you smiling like that? Yeah, that's nice of you to do, but you're acting like you just cured cancer."

"...Anyway, we should eat something before we leave. Since it's a special occasion, I went and whipped up one of my favorite breakfast foods for you."

"Waffles?" Goro put a finger to his nose and walked off towards the kitchen.

_Yeah, I'm sure everything's fine…_

* * *

After breakfast, Ren and Goro left the loft and took a train from Shibuya Station to Aoyama-itchome Station in Minato. The entire ride, neither one said a word to each other, as both seemed to be absorbed into their phones. Ren had no concrete idea about what Goro was up to, but if he had to guess, it was the same thing as him: deleting the mysterious regenerating app from earlier.

_What the hell is up with this thing?_ Ren asked himself. _Do I really have some kind of virus? ...Well, my music still works fine, so I can probably ignore it._

Before Ren knew it, the train ride was over, and the two of them were in Minato. They exited the station and walked out into the city, Ren using the walk as an opportunity to look at some of the sights one of Tokyo's wealthiest neighborhoods had to offer. On every side of the street were trendy-looking cafes and clothing stores, the kinds that Goro often posted pictures of to his social media accounts as he bought things there. On numerous buildings and billboards were advertisements for an upcoming LISALISALISA concert. Not an artist he was particularly fond of, but he didn't really have anything against her. Finally, there was also some other third thing as equally trendy and fashionable as the previously mentioned ones, yet not so much that it required attention outside of acknowledging its existence.

After walking for about ten minutes, Ren and Goro had finally arrived at Shujin Academy. It was a large building, most likely a result of its high status as one of the best high schools in Tokyo. Up above the front entrance were banners congratulating the volleyball team for making it to nationals, the year before. Reading that, Ren remembered hearing about Shujin's volleyball team being one of the best in the country, and if he put his focus towards his ears, he could hear the sounds of a volleyball match in the distance, no doubt the team practicing for the start of the season.

"Well this place looks inviting." Ren didn't take any of that in to the degree that he did the bleak, gray coloring of the building that didn't even attempt to look inviting and the plaque confirming that the school really did use the word for "Prisoner," if only with different kanji.

"Fun fact about Shujin Academy: the person who designed it was severely depressed," Goro said. "Now let's go inside."

* * *

It was a quick walk to the principal's office, and waiting inside was the man, himself, Principal Kobayakawa. He was a very portly man, the roll of fat where his neck should have been spilling out all over the collar of his beige suit. His poor physique seemed to only be further emphasized by how small his ears were and how bald his massive head was, as if he were a misshapen doll with the artificial hair ripped off.

Standing next to him was a woman with a figure that did a much better job of conveying typical healthiness, especially in comparison to Kobayakawa's. Between the bags under her eyes, her tangled mess of hair, long-sleeved yellow shirt with pieces of lint spread about, and a jean skirt held up by a belt that wasn't fully notched, Ren got the impression that she wanted to be here even less than he did.

"Ah, Akechi-kun! So nice to see you!" Kobayakawa said.

"Likewise, sir," Goro said. Kobayakawa looked like he was going to stand from his desk (disproving Ren's theory that he couldn't), but Goro motioned for him to stay where he was as he walked over and shook his hand. "You certainly seem to be looking well. Have you lost weight?"

"Hahaha! You sure know how to say the right things!" Kobayakawa laughed, smiling in a way that somehow emphasized his engorged muscles.

"Um, excuse me," Ren said, finally choosing to speak. "I'm Ren Amamiya. It's a pleasure to meet you." Ren punctuated his statement with a bow, yet even with that, Kobayakawa still wasted no time switching over to a frown.

"Yes, I suppose we should move on with _your_ business."

_Well this is going to be fun_ , Ren told himself. Kobayakawa opened up a drawer from underneath his desk, pulled out two pens and a piece of paper, and placed it out in front of Ren and Goro.

"This is the form finalizing your transfer, Amamiya-kun. You and Akechi-kun just need to sign on the dotted lines."

"Of course, sir," Goro said, still smiling at him. Ren couldn't help but roll his eyes as they each grabbed a pen and started signing their names.

"Just so we're clear, Amamiya-kun, if you cause any sort of trouble here, you _will_ be expelled, immediately," Kobayakawa said. "Normally, we wouldn't even accept someone in your position, but then it was brought to my attention that doing so wouldn't be without its benefits."

By that, Kobayakawa meant this: "If we tell people that we successfully turned a felon back into a functioning member of society, Shujin Academy's reputation will skyrocket and make it come off as even more prestigious than it already is." That's how Goro explained it, at least.

"Nevertheless, don't even think about repeating anything you did back in Kyoto," Kobayakawa said. "Delinquency of any manner won't be tolerated, and if I catch even a little of it, I won't hesitate to send you to juvenile hall, myself. Are we clear?"

"...Crystal, sir," Ren said as he and Goro finished signing the paper and handed it back to Kobayakawa. "The fruits of altruism, I guess," was kept to himself.

"You really have nothing to worry about, sir," Goro said, smiling with so many teeth that it looked like there was a snowbank in his mouth. "I'm personally watching over Ren, remember? As long as he's in my capable hands, you can trust that not one iota of tomfoolery will ever take place."

"That's good to hear!" Kobayakawa laughed. "Yes, Akechi-kun, I suppose there isn't much need to worry if someone as outstanding as you is keeping an eye on him!"

"Oh, stop!" Goro said with a small chuckle.

"I don't know if you knew this, Amamiya-kun, but your brother is one of the finest students we've had here in over a decade!"

"Oh, stop!" Goro said with a small chuckle.

"In addition to his detective work, he still manages to pour all of his heart and soul into his studies. Thanks to that, he's consistently had the second highest grades in his class!"

"Seriously, stop," Goro said, his face losing all semblance of joy it once had.

"Right, of course." Kobayakawa then waved his arm towards the woman standing next to him, finally acknowledging her presence in the room. "This is Sadayo Kawakami. She's our Language Arts teacher, and she'll be acting as your homeroom teacher; think of her as your second guardian."

"Hey. Nice to meet you," the woman, Kawakami, said, her eyes barely focused on Ren.

"Likewise," Ren said. If Ren really was as much of a delinquent as people thought, it'd probably be easy to get away with something with someone like her in charge of him. While Ren pondered this, Kawakami handed a plastic card to him. Judging by the picture of him on it, it had to be his ID.

"Make sure you know all the rules by tomorrow's assembly. I know I'm your homeroom teacher, but that's just because, of course, _my_ class was the only one that still had room when we got your papers. If you get in trouble, I'm not obligated to do anything about it."

"Understood," Ren said. _So much for being peas in a pod._

"Why do I feel like that that's not sincere?" Kawakami asked before turning to Goro. "Akechi-kun, please make sure to keep in line, okay?"

"You have nothing to worry about, Ms. Kawakami," Goro said. "Like I said, as long as I'm here, Ren will never find himself in trouble."

"If you say so," Kawakami said, her face conveying disbelief.

"Now, I hate to be rude, but I have to go to work, so if we're done here…"

"Oh, yes, of course, Akechi-kun!" Kobayakawa said, once again flashing a fatty smile. "I'll leave it to you to cover anything we might have missed, and I'm sure you'll do an excellent job of it!"

* * *

"How have you put up with these people for two years?" This was the first thing Ren said after he and Goro left the principal's office and walked out onto the street.

"It's not as hard as you might think, Ren," Goro said. "Despite her demeanor and personality, Ms. Kawakami is pretty much the only teacher in this school who doesn't have their head up their ass, so she's actually willing to help you if you don't give her a hard time."

"Now that you mention it, that does sound like it'd fit her to a 'T.'"

"As for Principal Kobayakawa, well, you saw what kind of guy he is. Flash a few 100s his way, and it won't take long for him to start seeing you as an 'upstanding individual' and permanently glue you to his good side. Once that happens, you can basically get anything out of him and the whole faculty, whether it's an OK for sleeping in class or a glowing letter of recommendation for college."

"So that's how you're doing it, eh?" Goro nodded his head with a smirk. "Guess you get a lot of perks for being the _second_ smartest kid in school." The smirking stopped. "Out of curiosity, who's the smartest?"

"Oh, you know, just this girl. Who I hate. A lot. With every fiber of my being. Please don't bring her up around me."

"No promises," Ren said as they rounded a corner and ended up at an intersection.

"Well, I guess this is where we part," Goro said. "Pretty soon, a bearded man dressed in white is gonna pull up in a yellow Buggy. He's the man I called to give you a ride home, so don't get into anyone else's car, by mistake."

"Not even if they have candy?" Ren asked.

"Ren, I love you, but I'm a police officer, so please don't make those kinds of jokes around me."

"Sorry, Mom." Goro scowled at Ren for a moment before his expression softened up. He then reached into his pocket, pulled out a key, and handed it to Ren.

"Here's the key to the loft so you can get in; the super should have another one made up for you in a few days. I really gotta get going, so see ya!" Before Ren could offer his own "See ya!" in response, Goro had already ran across the street towards the train station.

Thirteen seconds after Goro was out of site, a yellow buggy pulled up in front of Ren, and from the driver's seat stepped out a bearded man dressed in white (white pants, white suit over a pink shirt, and a white hat).

_Now that's what I call impeccable,_ Ren thought to himself.

"Hey, you're Akechi's brother, Ren Amamiya, right?" The man asked in a gruff voice.

Ren nodded in response.

"Ah, good. That picture he sent me didn't have glasses, so I wasn't sure. Anyway, I'm Sojiro Sakura."

"It's nice to meet you, sir," Ren said, offering him a hand. Sojiro ignored it and stepped back into the car.

"Well, what are you waiting for? You needed a ride, right?"

"...I guess." With an inaudible sigh, Ren got into shotgun and Sojiro drove off.

* * *

Ten minutes into the drive, and Ren and Sojiro had barely said a word to one another. Ren had continually tried to make conversation, but every time he looked at Sojiro, he gave him a glare that, when coupled with the wrinkles spread across his face, came across as even harsher than it should have (unless, of course, he intended on using his aging flesh to accentuate this). After going through the process for about the thirty-eighth time, Ren decided to just fiddle with the radio for a while.

" _Introducing Big Bang Burger's Big Bang Challenge! Finish this massive meal in under thirty minutes-"_

" _The LGBTQ community went wild when a woman matching Rise Kujikawa's appearance was sighted at a pride rally with a blue-haired-"_

" _What, exactly,_ are ' _Mental Shutdowns' and 'Psychotic Breakdowns'? How can we protect ourselves from this silent killer? Neuroscientist Keisuke Komatsubara weighs in on the issue-"_

"Kid, if you can't pick a channel, will you please just shut the damn thing off?!" Sojiro shouted.

"Sorry," Ren said, hastily shutting off the radio. "So now that we're talking, how do you know Goro?"

"Hm? Oh, well, I'm a friend of your parents. Well, a friend of a friend of theirs, actually. Guy they knew in college stops by my cafe once a week for lunch. Nice guy. Anyway, when your brother moved out here, your parents asked me to keep in touch with him as much as I could, so I get Akechi to come in every now and then."

"Really? What do you guys do?"

"Not much. Just talk about whatever's going on in our lives. Kid also helps with… never mind."

_Never mind what?_ Ren asked himself. "...So if you guys talk every now and then, I'm guessing you already know why I'm here, to begin with?"

"Yeah, I know all about it. You attacked some guy on the street, got expelled from your old school, and transferred to Akechi's school in order to get your record cleared. You say that you were defending some woman he was harassing, but even if that's true, that just means you were too stupid to not know how to keep out of other people's business."

"That's _one_ way of looking at it, I suppose."

"Hey, don't get wise with me, boy. That's how our society works, and you know firsthand what happens when you don't go along with that, don't you?" It was at this point when the thought of punching Sojiro in the face started becoming very intrusive.

"You sure don't beat around the bush, do you? Hard to believe Goro would actually talk to you about something like this."

"He didn't. I heard all about it from your parents, not him."

"Our parents? Why?"

"They told me when they asked me to take you in for your probation."

"What?!" Ren shouted. "They asked _you_ to take me in?"

"You didn't know? They offered me some cash to take you in for the year. The only reason I'm not doing it is because during the few days I spent mulling it over, Akechi ran off to Kyoto to dazzle the judge and get custody, himself. What? Does the idea of living with me disgust you _that_ much?"

"It's not that. I just… I can't believe my parents went to someone they're only barely connected to before my own brother."

"Really? You _really_ can't believe that?" Sojiro asked, raising an eyebrow in a quizzical manner. "Nearly three years ago, Akechi just up and moved out and went halfway across the country with barely a word of warning for his parents. Since then, he barely ever calls or messages them, and he only ever visits on New Year's. If I was Arata, I'd be pretty pissed for having to deal with such an ungrateful brat. Wouldn't you?"

"...Are we there yet?"

"Yes, actually," Sojiro said, pulling up to Goro's apartment complex. "You can leave now, if you want."

"Thanks for the ride, Sakura-san," Ren said, stepping out of the car and walking over to the front door.

"...Hey, kid," Sojiro said, stopping Ren before he grabbed the door handle. "Remember how I said I run a cafe? It's this little place a few minutes from Yongenjaya Station called Leblanc. If you ever need anything, just stop by and look for me, but do me a favor and don't need anything, okay?"

"I'll do my best," Ren said, not even turning to Sojiro as he walked inside the apartment complex.

* * *

After leaving Ren to be picked up by Sojiro, Goro walked to the Shibuya Station and took the first train he could to police headquarters in Kasumigaseki. In Goro's rush to finish his waffles that morning, he neglected to bring any reading materials with him, so he was left with nothing to occupy his time on the train. There was certainly the option of mindlessly playing around on his phone, but Goro knew that doing that would merely bring his attention back to the mysterious app that kept appearing on his phone, and the idea of sleeping brought back memories of his odd dream in the "Velvet Room." So he decided to just let his mind wander aimlessly for the twenty minutes it would take for him to arrive at Chiyoda Ward.

Twenty minutes later, Goro was indeed in Kasumigaseki, and after entering the police station and meeting with his superior, he learned that that was apparently a thing of luck. According to her, a subway in Shibuya derailed and crashed at a station. Fortunately, no one was killed, but about eighty people were injured and had to be hospitalized until further notice. When it was discovered that there was nothing wrong with the train systems or the railway, the conductor was arrested for causing the incident. At the time of the arrest, though, the man's demeanor was completely erratic: his eyes had no life to them, he barely responded to other people's words, and he continuously struggled against the arresting officers, even after they were forced to taze him.

"All of this suggests only one thing: the conductor suffered a Psychotic Breakdown." The person who said this was Goro's supervisor, a public prosecutor by the name of Sae Niijima. "The Minister of Transport had already been receiving heat for a string of controversial decisions. Now that this has been added into the mix, he'll undoubtedly be forced to retire. It's terrible, really."

"Not as terrible as this fatty tuna, though," Goro said, ignoring the glare that was immediately thrown his way by Sae. "Sae-san, if you want me to be fully invested, you shouldn't take me out to shitty conveyor belt sushi."

"I'll try to keep that in mind for next time," Sae said, brushing a stray piece of seaweed off of her pants suit.

"See, you _say_ that, but-"

"Akechi," Sae said with a great deal of curt.

"Right. My apologies," Goro said. "Back to task, if we continue to operate under the idea that Mental Shutdowns and Psychotic Breakdowns are being orchestrated by someone, it's likely that our Mystery Culprit 'X' knew that this would force the Minister of Transport to retire. This had to be a premeditated move on his end."

"To what end, though? Who would have something to gain from this? Certainly not Okumura."

"Unless he did it to try and make himself look innocent by taking out someone without a connection to Okumura Foods, of course. If he really is our guy, it'd be the perfect way to get the police off of his trail," Goro said as he shoved a piece of tuna into his mouth, his mouth curling in slight discomfort at the taste of low-quality ingredients.

"Yes, that would be a rather clever thing to do," Sae said, eating a piece of her own sushi with comparatively less disgust.

"We've been on this case for months, but we still don't have anything good enough to use. Okumura Foods is the only real suspect we have, but there's not enough to go on for the court to give us a warrant."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll take care of that."

"You'll what?"

"Ugh, they call this wasabi? My mouth is barely burning, and let me tell you, I do _not_ have a high tolerance for heat."

"Akechi!"

"What?"

"You _know_ what."

"I do? Oh, right, I do," Goro said with a faux smile. "Believe it or not, I've actually come up with a way to get dirt on Okumura Foods." A piece of yellowtail fell out of Sae's gaping mouth.

"Are you serious?"

"Quite so, Sae-san. Starting tomorrow, I'll be able to put my plan into action, and while I can't guarantee that it'll expose Okumura Foods as the ones behind the Mental Shutdowns and Psychotic Breakdowns, at the very least, it'll allow me to expose all of the legitimate corruption going on behind their closed doors."

"I don't suppose you feel like telling me about your plan, right?"

"Not if you keep treating me to garbage like this," Goro said as a waiter was refilling their waters. "Oh, don't look at me like that. You know what you're doing and how bad it is." The waiter just scowled at Goro as he finished filling their glasses and walked away.

"You know he's going to spit in your food if you order something."

"If he does, then he'll be waiting tables at a Big Bang Burger in a week," Goro said, his smile not faltering as Sae simply groaned. Such was the relationship between the young prosecutor and the even younger detective.

"Speaking of tomorrow, that's when the school year starts, isn't it? Make sure to not let your school work and police work interfere with each other, Akechi."

"I'll do my best."

"Also, if it wouldn't be too much trouble-"

"There's no way in hell that it couldn't be."

* * *

There was a knock on the door of the loft. Followed by another. Then another. After the fourth knock, Ren got off the couch, brushed potato chip crumbs off his shirt, and opened the door.

"Honey, I'm home!" Goro said as he walked through the door.

"Welcome home, dear," Ren said without hesitation. "How was work?"

"Oh, you know, same old same old. Did a bunch of paperwork, had a lunch meeting about all the Mental Shutdowns and Psychotic Breakdowns-oh, that reminds me! I brought you leftovers!" Goro said, tossing a paper bag over to Ren.

"Thanks. I am _starving_."

"Glad to hear-wait, what?" Goro dropped the bit when he saw that the coffee table was covered with soda cans, candy wrapper, empty potato chip bags, and about a dozen dirty plates.

"I'm a growing boy?"

"A growing pig, really," he said, taking the bag right out of Ren's hands. Ren said nothing in response as he picked up the plates and walked them over to the kitchen sink.

"So Sakura-san gave me a ride like you said he would. He was certainly nice."

"Putting it gently, I see," Goro remarked as he scooped up some trash from the table and threw it away. "Sojiro-san's a good man, but he is the definition of rough around the edges. Give it some time, though, and he'll warm up to you."

"How long did it take _you_ to win him over?"

"I'll tell you when I actually do." Ren couldn't stop himself from laughing at that. "It's getting late, and we don't want to be late for the first day, especially you, Ren. We should both get some sleep pretty soon."

"Yeah, you're right. Hopefully it'll be better than last night."

"My thoughts, exactly." Ren smiled at that, but then the smile faded as he caught what Goro said.

"My thoughts, exactly," he said. Goro also had a bad night of sleep the previous evening. Why, though? Ren knew why he didn't sleep well, but why didn't Goro?

_Crap, now we're staring at each other,_ Ren thought to himself.

"Well, good night," Goro said, exiting the living room and heading for his bedroom.

"Yeah, good night." _It's probably nothing._

* * *

_**April 11, 20XX** _

A rainy morning greeted Ren when he awoke the next day. He mused at how appropriate that was.

"Let's get this over with," Ren said. With forced energy, he got up from his bed, took a quick shower, and started dressing himself in his school uniform. No matter how much he looked at the thing, it always came off as restricting and demoralizing. In that regard, it was actually appropriate for a "Prison School" like Shujin.

"You ready, Ren?" Goro called from the living room.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Ren, now fully dressed, stepped out of his bedroom and walked into the living room. There, he was greeted to Goro dressed in a uniform identical to his own, though Goro wore it with much clearer comfort.

"Don't _you_ look good?"

"I look like a tool. We both look like tools, Goro."

"If we do, then we're handsome tools."

Ren simply pushed against the bridge of his glasses for a response and headed for the door.

* * *

A hop and a skip on the train later, Ren and Goro at the gates to Shujin Academy. The building still had all of the absolutely zero comfort Ren got from it yesterday, but the mass of students walking by made it a little harder for him to get to that. On all sides of him, people dressed just like him were moving about, talking about whatever mindless thing was currently on their minds, all going about their lives without a care in the world. As the two of them headed to the gym for the opening ceremony, he couldn't help but envy them a little.

"Well, everyone has to sit with their year, so I guess this is where we part," Goro said. "We can meet up back here after the ceremony, so don't miss me too much."

"It's really hard to miss you when you won't leave," Ren said. With nothing but a smile, Goro stepped into the gym and walked over to the rest of the third-year students, Ren following, soon after.

"Hey, Amamiya." At least he would have, had someone not grabbed his shoulder and stopped him in his tracks.

"Can I help you?" Ren asked, turning to face the person talking to him. It was a man who very much eclipsed Ren in both height and build; the man could only be a teacher, on account of him wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants as opposed to anything resembling the school uniform; it would certainly explain how he knew Ren's name. At the top of his incredibly large body was an appropriately large head sporting a nose with a degree of hilarity he simply had to be aware of, a mop of hair curly enough to make Ren's look straight, and a smile that became more and more threatening as he tried to make it more and more sincere.

"My name is Suguru Kamoshida. I'm the gym teacher here at Shujin Academy, and on behalf of the entire faculty, I'd like to welcome you to our fine establishment!"

"Aren't you supposed to do that at the opening ceremony you seem to be doing a very good job of keeping me from?"

"Ha! He has jokes!" Kamoshida said with a slight twitch of the eye. "Yes, I guess the ceremony would normally be the best time for this, but given your unique background, I thought it would make sense for you to receive a welcoming that was a little more personal."

"Ah. So this is about my record."

"And he's smart, too!" Ren felt the grip on his shoulder tightening. "I know that you went through quite the ordeal in your old town, and I'm sure you think the best thing to do now is to just forget about it and try and live out a year of halcyon days here in the big city, but that would be a big mistake."

"Really?"

"Really. I mean, this is meant to be your rehabilitation, right? If you relax too hard, you might forget that, screw things up for yourself _and your brother_ , and end up with your life in shambles. You don't want that, I don't want that, no one wants that! So the best thing for everyone is for you to just remember why you're here and not try to make trouble for anyone, okay?"

"Understood, sir." Before Kamoshida could say anything else, Ren took his hand off of his shoulder and walked into the gym, not once turning back to see Kamoshida scowling at him.

* * *

"Excuse me, but is it okay if I sit here?" After walking around the gym for a good while, Goro finally managed to find the seat he was looking for: an ideal place to sit for the opening ceremony.

"Of course. I don't mind." The person who responded was the one sitting next to the empty chair Goro quickly occupied. She was a fellow senior at Shujin with a bright smile on her face and wide eyes as delicately brown as her curly hair. A puffy, pink cardigan adorned her torso in lieu of the traditional school blazer, and her legs were dressed in star-patterned stockings as they stuck together with refined poise.

"You're Goro Akechi, right? The boy detective everyone says will be the Second Detective Prince, one day?"

_Like I don't already deserve it, now._ "That's right, and if memory serves, your name is… Haru Okumura, correct?"

"Huh? Um, yes, but how did you know that? I remembered your name from the news, but I don't think we've ever really talked before."

"Well, that's pretty obvious, Okumura," Goro said, Haru's eyelids appearing to fall a little as Goro closed off his statement. "We were in the same homeroom class freshman year."

"O-Oh, right! Right, we were! Of course that's why. Haha."

"What did you think I was going to say?"

"N-Nothing! Nothing at all!" A smile made its way to Goro's lips. "So, freshman year, right? Hard to believe that was only two years ago."

"I know. Feels like it was only yesterday that Principal Kobayakawa was still trying to fool everyone with that ugly toupee."

"Oh, I remember that! I can't believe he actually wore that. It looked so much like a rat king that I thought he robbed the Mauritianum!"

"Yeah, I-wait, the what?"

"It's a museum in Germany that holds a mummified corpse of the largest rat king ever discovered. It's made of thirty-two rats and was first found in 1828 in a miller's fireplace in Buchheim. Isn't that interesting?"

"It's certainly factual," Goro said. Haru's face appeared to be going a little red in response. "In a good way, I mean! It's nice that you have such unique interests."

"That doesn't sound very sincere, if I'm being honest," Haru said with a pout.

"Is that right? Well then, feel free to embarrass me to make things even between us. Though now that I bring it up, I doubt that you'd actually be able to say anything that could-"

"I just remembered something! On the first day of class, when we were all giving our introductions, you kept flip-flopping between your Tokyo dialect and your Kyoto dialect! You sounded like someone from the country trying too hard to fit in the 'big city'!"

"...Wow, you really didn't hold back," Goro said, still smiling as his head dropped towards the floor. "So this is what happens when you run into people who knew you before you were famous. It's even less fun than I thought it'd be."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you upset! I mean, I guess I sort of did because of how embarrassed I felt, but-"

"Stop. Stop, Okumura. There's nothing inherently wrong taking jabs at one another, so you don't have to apologize for anything. Furthermore, I _did_ tell you to do it, after all."

"That's true. I also won't deny that it felt a little fun, but…"

"Don't take it back. It's fine. Perfectly fine. Really, it is!"

"Well, if you say so, then… okay!" Haru said with a smile.

"Good, good," Goro said, bringing his head back up. "That actually leads into something I wanted to talk to you about, Okumura."

"Even though we haven't talked since freshman year?"

"My point, exactly. We haven't talked since freshman year, and I haven't really done a good job of talking to other people, as well. Now it's our senior year, and I barely have any connections with anyone. Sure, I do keep myself incredibly busy with my job, and I probably won't see anyone from this school once I graduate, but it'd still be pretty pathetic to end high school all by myself. I really don't have the time or patience to try and talk to new people, but then I saw you, an old memory flashed before my eyes, and I thought 'Here's someone I can hang out with!' Wait, that makes it sound like I'm only doing this because it'd be easiest with you. Let me start over-"

"Akechi-kun, please don't," Haru said. "Partly because hearing all of that again would be a chore for both of us, and partly because I'd love to be your friend."

"Really?"

"Of course! You don't seem like a bad person, after all." Haru extended a hand over to Goro. "Let's be friends and make our last year here one to remember."

"I couldn't agree more," Goro said, taking Haru's hand and shaking it, a smile etched across his face all the while.

* * *

After the opening ceremony, Goro and Ren met back up outside the gym and headed towards the main building. With the school year now officially starting, it was time for them and the rest of the student body to head to their newly assigned classes, the listings for each grade being posted on the bulletin board by the front entrance.

"So I noticed you were talking to someone before the ceremony started," Ren said once the two of them were inside.

"Indeed, I was," Goro said.

"So what's your angle here, Goro?" Right by the stairwell, Goro stopped in his tracks, Ren immediately following him.

"'Angle'? Why Ren, I'm shocked! I make a friend, and you assume that I have some ulterior motive?"

"Yes, because last time I checked, you didn't have any friends." This was not something about Ren that Goro had particularly missed.

"You know… You know that people can change over time, right? For all you know, I've spent the last two years becoming a bright and cheery socialite beloved by his peers!"

"Did you do that, though?"

"I did parts of that."

"Any of the important parts, though?" Ren asked. Goro let out a small groan and furrowed his brow.

"Look, Ren, if I say I made a friend, then I made a friend. Granted, she's not the kind of friend I plan on having a lot of extended interactions with, but she's still a friend, nonetheless."

"What is that supposed to-is that a hundred yen coin, over there?" His mind elsewhere, Ren took off away from Goro and headed down an adjacent hallway. Before Goro could go after him, though, Haru appeared in front of him with a smile on her face.

"Hi, Akechi-kun!" Haru said.

"Oh, Okumura. To what do I owe the pleasure? Do you want to check the class listings together, or something?" Goro asked.

"Actually, I was just there, and that's why I came to find you. You don't need to go look yourself, because we're going to be in the same class!"

"Really?" Haru nodded in response. "That's great. Here I thought we'd just run into each other every now and then, but now we get to see each other every day. How about that?"

"Akechi-kun, why is your eye twitching?"

"Oh, I just have something caught in there." Goro then proceeded to slap himself in the face. "See? All better."

"If you say so…" Haru said, her words reassuring, yet her face filled with suspicion.

"I do say so. By the way, is the Student Council President in our class?"

"No, I don't believe so. Why?"

"Just curious," Goro said. "At least this is salvageable," he said under his breath. "Well, I guess I'll meet you in homeroom, Okumura. Which room is it?"

"3-D, right behind you, actually. See you there!" With a skip in her step, Haru walked away from Goro and headed into the nearby classroom. It was roughly around this time that Ren came back from his own personal adventure.

"It was just a button. Good looking button, though," Ren said. "Anything happen while I was away?"

"Nothing I'd like to talk about."

* * *

After finding their way to the class listings, Ren and Goro went their separate ways, Goro staying on the first floor while Ren went up a flight of stairs to be with the rest of the second-year students. According to the listing, Ren's class was 2-D, and going off of the layout of the first floor, it would have to be to the left of the staircase. While Ren walked this path, though, he began to notice something peculiar about the rest of the student body: everyone was staring at him.

"...that transfer student…" Staring and whispering, as it turned out. Every step Ren took, someone new turned to look at him for only two seconds before turning away and either muttering something under their breath or whispering to someone next to him. When Ren finally arrived at the door to his class, he stopped right in front of it and did his best to listen in on what everyone was saying about him.

"...thought he'd look tougher…"

"...think it's all true?"

"...he's got a knife under his pants…"

"...told me he has ties with the yakuza…"

"...probably doesn't even wash his hands…"

"...kun. Hey, Amamiya-kun!" A louder, more direct voice caught Ren's attention from right in front of him.

"Oh, Ms. Kawakami. I didn't see you standing there."

"I've been standing here for almost a minute. Are you sure those glasses have the right prescription?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Ren said, pushing against the bridge of his glasses.

"Whatever. Homeroom's starting, so you need to introduce yourself to the class. For everyone's sake, keep it short and PC, okay?"

"I'll do my best to tone down the profanity, ma'am," Ren said with a salute. Kawakami just walked into the classroom muttering "I'm too tired for this crap" under her breath. Ren followed her into the classroom and stopped at the blackboard. Turning to face everyone, Ren once again found a crowd of people whispering odd comments about his character for reasons he couldn't think of.

"Welcome to your second year at Shujin Academy," Kawakami said, her voice lacking any trace of enthusiasm. "As you all remember from the opening ceremony, because of the accident on the trains yesterday, today will be a half day. Obviously, we all just want to get through today as quickly as possible so we can go home, myself, included, but first, we have a new student to introduce."

"My name is Ren Amamiya. I transferred here from Kyoto to spend a year with my older brother. It's a pleasure to meet you all, and I hope we can get along," Ren said, ending his introduction with a small bow.

A silence immediately followed. It's not as if Ren was expecting a standing ovation simply for introducing himself; a lack of audible response from the class was perfectly reasonable. Yet, for some reason, there appeared to be an air of opposition emanating from this silence, as if Ren's very presence called for him to be judged by everyone before him. What an odd thing to happen, he told himself.

"If you're done, you can sit down now. Your seat is near the back behind Takamaki-san. It's the only one that's free, so you can't miss it." A quick nod and Ren was away from the board. It didn't take long for him to locate the empty seat on the far right side of the room.

Directly in front of the empty desk was a single girl staring vacantly out the window; she had to be Takamaki. The girl had dark red leggings running underneath a skirt noticeably shorter than the other girls' skirts, and her blazer was opened up to show off a white hoodie (the large "S" near the hem was an indication that it might be something sold by the school, Ren noted). Her ash blonde hair, done up in pigtails, didn't look like it was dyed, and her blue eyes and sizeable chest led Ren to believe that the girl was a foreigner, to some extent.

"Morning," he said to her as he passed her desk. Takamaki turned towards him for a brief second before scowling and turning back towards the window. Ren just gave a halfhearted shrug before sitting down.

"...Takamaki just shut someone down?" Someone whispered.

"...not that easy, after all," another person whispered.

"...enough pride not to go for guys like him," a third person whispered.

"...would she, when she has Kamoshida?" A fourth person whispered.

* * *

Ren's day continued more or less like it had after the ceremony, with everyone avoiding him and whispering random comments behind his back. A part of him wanted to believe that they were just being suspicious of the new transfer student, but they kept treating him like a pariah even after it should have become clear that he wasn't any sort of threat.

Takamaki was no different. After math class had ended, Ren ran into her when he left to get a drink from the water fountain. Ren had tried to strike up a conversation with her, to put the two of them on better footing than they had started out at. All that had accomplished was her telling him to stop acting like someone like him could just walk up and talk to her, and before he could say anything, she walked away and seemed to get into a shouting match with a blonde-haired boy from another class.

"'Someone like him,'" Ren mused at the end of the half day. A pretty odd choice of words, considering that he hadn't done anything to anyone. Hadn't done anything to anyone in Tokyo, at least. Which begged the all important question: did everyone know about his record?

_No, that can't be,_ Ren told himself. _No one here is supposed to know about it except for Goro and the teachers. That stuff's supposed to be private, not the latest headline in the Tokyo Gazette, or whatever the gossip magazine around here is called. Besides, Goro said that the principal accepted me because he thinks "turning me around" will be good for the school's reputation, but that'd be hard to do if I have to deal with everyone hassling me for a year. What's going on, then?_

"Everything alright, Ren?" A person asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Goro. Just a little post-first day jitters." Without even realizing it, Ren had met back up with his brother and the two had exited the school at the end of the half day.

"Don't worry too much. You'll get used to this place pretty quickly, and if you don't, be lucky you only have to spend a year here." Ren nodded his head. "Meet any interesting people?"

"To a certain extent, I guess. No one really felt like talking to me, though. Except for this teacher who passive aggressively threatened me."

"Is that _right_?" Goro asked, slamming his foot down as they reached the crosswalk.

"That's rather odd. Which teacher was it, exactly?"

"I honestly don't remember. He was this tall guy with a perm and a big nose who looked really buff, and I think he might've said he was the gym teacher, or something."

"Oh, that must have been Suguru Kamoshida, because of course it was."

"Sounds like you don't like him," Ren said.

"I don't like any of the teachers at Shujin Academy, but Mr. Kamoshida's by far the least tolerable. Sure, he acts like a nice guy, but if you actually pay a little attention to him, everything he does makes it clear that he's an egotistical windbag. Made the volleyball team nationally ranked and the guy acts like he can do or say whatever he wants. Like he's a god, or something."

_Definitely remember getting that vibe from him,_ Ren thought.

"Hey, Goro, I think that-"

"Oh, what the hell is this?" Goro asked, clearly not directed at Ren. Goro's head was turned to their left. Not much was in that direction outside of a few cafes and some flyers promoting a bald politician. Something that was worth letting attention be grabbed, however, was a girl in red sweats carrying a shovel and a large bag of fertilizer. She kept stopping every few seconds to set them down, so it seemed like it was a rather difficult task, at least for someone with her slim physique.

"Isn't that the girl you were talking to this morning?" Ren asked.

"That's right. Oh, I think the light's going to change soon."

"Goro, don't you think-"

"Was I not clear with you, earlier? She's not someone I plan on talking to when I don't need to."

"What kind of friendship is that?"

"The kind that isn't any of your business."

"I'm gonna call her over," Ren said.

"Do not call her over here," Goro said, his head snapping towards Ren.

"I'm gonna do it."

"I will lock you out of the apartment and force you to bum with a bum if you don't stop with all of that, right now."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. What's the bum situation in Tokyo?"

"They exist. Doesn't that say enough? Just listen to me, alrea-goddammit you see what you do?"

Ren turned back to the girl and saw that she had locked eyes with Goro at some point. Thanks to that, she started to head over to where the two of them were standing, though she still had to stop every so often to set her shovel and fertilizer down.

"Akechi-kun, hello!" The girl said to him.

"Oh, hello. Fancy running into you," Goro said. Ren could tell he was forcing a smile onto his face.

"Okumura, this is my brother, Ren. Ren, this is Haru Okumura."

"Good afternoon," Ren said. The girl, Okumura, looked at him with widened eyes that briefly darted away from him. When they focused back on him, it was just barely enough to not be rude.

"Oh. So you're Akechi-kun's brother, then?" Okumura asked.

"Am I not supposed to be?"

"No, it's not that, I just… nevermind. It's nice to meet you," she said without conviction, a lack of conviction that mirrored the tone of his peers all throughout the day, before turning back to Goro.

"So what brings you over in sweats, Okumura?" Goro asked.

"Well, for a while now, I've been doing a bit of gardening on the roof of the school, and since today's the first day of the new term, I needed some supplies, so I went down to Compost Castle to get a bag of fertilizer."

"And the shovel?"

"The back of it has a pattern that kind of looks like a skull, and I thought that was cute." Ren had doubts about that.

"It looks like you're having a lot of trouble there. Shouldn't you have brought a cart or a friend or something?" Ren asked.

"What?" Okumura asked, her head snapping back towards Ren as if it was crazy for him to be talking.

"Oh, well, I was only getting one bag, so I thought that I could handle it by myself." Okumura started scratching at her cheek with her index finger. "As for using a cart, those are only allowed for things involving the school, and I'm kind of doing this without permission."

"Wow, how scandalous," Goro said. "Well, Ren and I really need to get going, Okumura. I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Grab an end, Goro," Ren said, picking up one side of the fertilizer.

""Really?"" Goro and Okumura asked in unison.

"Ren, did you forget what we _just_ talked about?" Goro asked.

"What did you just talk about?" Okumura asked.

"Not important. Plus, that bag is filthy, and I'd get dirt all over my uniform."

"You're just going to take it off when we get home, though," Ren said.

"That's not the point."

"True, but what is the point is that it wouldn't kill you to help someone out. She is supposed to be your friend, right?"

Goro furrowed his brow at Ren before bending down and picking up the other end of the bag.

"Sure, fine. We'll both lend you a hand, Okumura. Left my umbrella at the school, anyway."

"Really? Thank you so much!" Okumura said, smiling brightly.

As soon as the words left her mouth, though, a splitting pain ran through Ren's head, forcing him to drop his end of the bag.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry," Ren said. "Don't know what that was… about…"

Ren trailed off when he saw that Goro and Okumura were both wincing in pain, as well.

"Did anyone else feel really weird for a second?" Okumura asked.

"Forget it, it's nothing. Probably just global cooling, or something," Goro said as he and Ren picked the bag back up and started walking back towards the school.

Just at that moment, the light finally turned green. Ren thought nothing of it.

* * *

_**November XX, 20XX** _

"God… dammit!" Goro shouted, punching Ren in the face a second time, this time with enough force to send him to the ground. "Why the hell do you always have to make things so difficult?! Always going against the crowd, always making a scene for your so called 'justice'... it's so annoying!

"It's so goddamn annoying!" Once more, Goro pulled out his gun and pointed it at Ren, this time holding it with much more ferocity. In spite of this, Ren merely looked at him with a mixture of anger and indifference.

"What was it all for, Goro? Everything we did this year… all the fighting, all the bonding… what was the point of it all if it was going to lead us, here?"

"...I don't even know, anymore." Goro said this with a solemn expression, barely even looking Ren in the face. "This is all your fault, you know."

"I'm sorry to say… that I don't know…"

"I just wanted to go home that day, remember? I just wanted to go home, do some work, and hang out with my brother. But you wouldn't let that happen, now would you?"

Ren didn't say anything, only turning away from Goro. Goro, in turn, put his gun away, picked Ren up by his collar, and threw him back into his chair.

"I'm starting to get the impression… that you want to hurt me…" Ren said, re-adjusting himself.

"Shut up, back to me. You just wouldn't let me have my way. You just had to be a good samaritan and force the two of us into lending Okumura a hand. You didn't even know her, back then! What, were you only doing it because she's your type?

"Whatever it was, I guess the reasons don't matter when they all lead to the same conclusion: this is your fault. You made us help Okumura, and because of that, we ended up in that world and our halcyon days came to an end before they could even begin. Hope you're proud of yourself."

"Should I… not be?"

* * *

_**April 11, 20XX** _

"So, you two don't really look that much alike."

Goro raised an eyebrow at Haru's sudden statement.

"What is this, all of a sudden?" Goro asked.

"Well, you said that Amamiya-kun is your brother, but I don't really see much of a resemblance. Actually, now that I think about it, you two don't look anything alike. Aren't siblings supposed to look a little like each other? Also, I'm just realizing this now, but why do you two have different last names?"

"Well, Okumura-senpai, we're not actually related by blood. I only call Goro my brother because he's my senior in our gang," Ren said.

"G-Gang?!"

"Ren, shut up," Goro cut in. "We're not in a gang, Okumura. If you really must know… Hold on. Why'd you call Ren 'Amamiya-kun'? I never said his last name."

"Guys," Ren said, his words falling on deaf ears.

"Why wouldn't I know it? I figured that everyone would know it," Haru said.

"Guys."

"Why would everyone know my brother's name?" Goro asked. "He's only been here for half a day."

"That's true, but since we all-"

"Guys!" Ren shouted, cutting Haru off.

"What, Ren?!" Goro shouted. It was amazing how rude people could be, Goro thought. He thought this only for a moment, though, as he and Haru (he assumed)caught sight of what Ren was trying to point out to them.

First thing of note was the sky. What was once a clear blue expanse in spite of the morning rain was now covered in a cloudy mass with an eerie red tint to it. All of it swirling. All of it swirling around what appeared to be a castle straight out of medieval times. Though as strange as the sight of a castle was, its mere existence wasn't the strangest part.

The strangest part was that the castle sat where Shujin Academy should have.

"Are castles a normal thing in Tokyo?" Ren asked.

"I-I don't think so," Haru said with widened eyes. "Akechi-kun, isn't this where the school is supposed to be?"

"It should be. We didn't take a wrong turn, did we?" Goro asked as he and Ren but the bag of fertilizer back on the ground.

"Hey, I'm the country bumpkin coming to the big city for the first time, you tell me," Ren said.

"Fine. ...No, we definitely didn't take a wrong turn. The route we took was the same one I always take to get to school. In that case, what's with this castle? There isn't any sort of Renaissance fair going on, and even if there was, they wouldn't be having it in the middle of the city. Not to mention the sky. Everything about the sky just seems completely unnatural. The clouds, the colors, none of it makes sense.

"Well, best thing to do is just ignore it and head back the way we came."

"Seriously? That's not much curiosity for a detective."

"I'm off the clock."

"Shouldn't we try to look into this, though?" Haru asked. "The school _is_ supposed to be here, after all. At the very least, we can try asking whoever's inside for directions."

"A giant, ominous castle pops up out of nowhere under a miscolored sky, and you want to go _near_ it? Okumura, I don't mean to be rude, but please don't be an idiot."

"Sorry," Haru said, kicking at the ground.

"So no acting like meddling kids?" Ren asked.

"No acting like meddling kids," Goro said. "We're just gonna turn around, go a different way to the school, and then we'll go home."

Goro and Ren reached down for the fertilizer they were carrying before. As Goro moved to put his hands around his end, though, a butterfly fluttered into view. A butterfly by itself would hardly be anything out of the ordinary, but the butterfly Goro saw was colored blue. The same blue coloring that was used in the place he dreamed about, last night.

""We're going in,"" was said by both Goro and Ren.

"Wait, why do _you_ want to go in?" Ren asked.

"I realized that as a detective, I have an obligation to investigate strange anomalies in my city," Goro said. "Why do _you_ want to go in?"

"I want to be a meddling kid."

Goro stared at Ren, and he him, neither one allowing their gaze to not be met by the one in front of them.

"So, we _are_ going inside?" Haru asked.

* * *

They did, indeed, go inside the castle. The interior of where they first ended up was pretty much what Goro expected out of a castle: large staircases leading to the upper levels, chandeliers hanging up high from the ceiling, candles and candelabras illuminated the area, and a massive portrait of the man Goro assumed was in charge of the castle. The man was adorned in a suit of golden armor, sword in hand, mouth opened for a yell of triumph as he charged off into battle. The portrait would be a thing of beauty to Goro if not for one negative point about it.

"That's a portrait of Mr. Kamoshida," Goro said. "There's a portrait of Mr. Kamoshida hanging up here. A portrait of Mr. Kamoshida is hanging in this castle."

"Wait, whose portrait is hanging here? I don't think I caught it," Ren said.

"But why does one of our teachers have a portrait of himself? Is there actually some connection between this castle and Shujin Academy?" Haru asked, tightening the grip on her shovel.

"Then, what, he's a wizard, or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Ren, there's no such thing as wizards," Goro said. "Though I have to agree with Okumura; this is very suspicious. Might not be a bad idea to get a second opinion."

Goro pulled out his phone, most likely to call a fellow detective or some sort of outside contact, but after looking at his phone for just a few seconds, he shoved it back into his pocket with a glare at no one.

"No service," Goro said.

"No service? But we're in the middle of the city!" Ren shouted. Ren and Haru each pulled out their own to check for themselves. It was as Goro said: there was no service. Goro rolled his eyes.

"This is getting really weird, you guys," Haru said.

"Didn't realize it wasn't already," Goro said.

"You know what I mean. At least, you should…"

"Look, we all wanted to look around this place, right? We can't exactly do that by just standing here, so-"

Before Goro could finish talking, a clanging of metal sounded off in the air. The clanging got louder with every second. Whatever was the source of the sound was getting closer.

Goro stepped in front of Ren, Ren pushed his glasses up and moved into a defensive stance, and Haru wrapped her hands tightly around her shovel and held it against her body. With expressions of varying degrees of anxiousness, the trio stood and awaited whatever was coming.

"Who are you?!" It was a knight wearing the typical shining armor. While the tone of his voice clearly showcased anger, his face added nothing to it, as it was wearing an expressionless blue mask for all to see.

"Hey, buddy, I think you got your cosplay a little messed up," Goro said.

"Answer me!"

"It might be one of those fusion things," Ren said. "Oh, I know what I want for dinner."

"Um, he seems mad. Maybe if don't ignore him, he'll-"

That was all Haru said before Goro's vision went dark.

* * *

Awaking with a daze, Goro cursed the series of unfortunate events that led to him being knocked unconscious by a knight, of all things. Whoever was responsible for this was getting the bill for the CT scan he'd be getting later.

"Ren, are you alright?" Goro asked.

"That seems rather subjective, but yes," Ren said. "Okumura-senpai's fine, too."

"Hello," Haru said, weakly, clutching her shovel with dear life. Goro let it pass him by as his vision came to and he took in his surroundings.

The three of them were in a jail cell. Not a blue one, like the one that was far too engraved into his memory, but one of a darker, uglier hue. Rusted chains draped the walls. Ice cold bricks made up the floor they stood on. A row of iron bars trapped them inside with no obvious method of escape.

The silence of Goro's analysis was broken by a sudden scream perforating the air. Haru winced in response.

"Wh-What's even going on?" Haru asked. "Have we been kidnapped? That scream just now… are they torturing people? Is it for some kind of snuff film? Why us? Is it because of my father? Did he do something-"

"Okumura, shut up!" Goro shouted.

"Sorry…"

"Goro, come on," Ren pleaded.

"Well what good would going into a panic be for us?" Goro asked.

"Probably as much good as yelling at someone who's clearly terrified."

"Will you just-"

"Both of you, be quiet!" Haru cut in. Goro opened his mouth to say something in protest, but it snapped shut when he noticed what was most likely the reason for her interjection: the familiar metal clanging of ironclad feet.

It was only a few seconds before the Masked Knight reappeared in front of the cell, this time with an identical companion.

"Your punishment has been decided upon," Masked Knight #1 said.

"For the crime of unlawful entry, the three of you shall be sentenced to execution," Masked Knight #2 said.

"E-Execution?!" Haru cried.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Ren shouted. "I don't know what game you're playing at, but this is way too much!"

"The fact that you would have the gall to try and brush this off as a joke is almost as insulting as your actual crime," a third voice, slightly distorted and not belonging to either Masked Knight, said.

Goro recognized that voice. When the Masked Knights stepped apart, he recognized the person who stepped between them. His outfit was different from what Goro usually saw him in, the man wearing a crown atop his head, a cape adorned with hearts over his torso, and nothing but a pink speedo across his nethers. His eyes were also different, no longer brown, but instead an eerie yellow.

The man's appearance was utterly bizarre and unnatural, but Goro couldn't deny that Suguru Kamoshida was standing in front of him.

"I knew you'd be a thorn in my side, Amamiya, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. Surprised to see you, too, Okumura; always pegged you as the goody two shoes type. And Akechi. How ironic to have the acclaimed boy detective become my prisoner. That makes it all the more satisfying, if I'm being honest."

"Mr. Kamoshida, what's going on?!" Haru asked. "Why are you dressed like that? Why are these guys treating you like a king? You're just a teacher, aren't you?!"

"A teacher? You would dare insinuate that I should be doing peasant work? I am the king of this castle, and I only act as such, Okumura. If you need proof, just watch as I have the three of you beheaded for your crimes."

Kamoshida opened the door to the cell. The Masked Knights stepped inside one after another, Kamoshida following immediately after them.

"Sorry, but last I checked, we lived in a democracy!" Goro said, charging at Masked Knight #1 with a shoulder tackle. Masked Knight #1 stumbled for a bit, but then quickly regained his footing before punching Goro in the stomach.

"Goro!" Ren shouted, running to Goro as he fell to his knees. Haru moved towards him, as well, but her path was immediately blocked by the sword of Masked Knight #2.

"That was… pretty much the opposite of what I wanted to happen."

"Look at you, Akechi; the living embodiment of 'all bark, and no bite,'" Kamoshida said with a laugh. "I was planning on killing you first, but since these people are so important to you, I'll take care of you last and let you watch the other two die. If you're lucky, the spectacle will be so much that you decide to kill yourself before I even have a chance."

"The hell you will!" Ren shouted. "You're not getting away with-"

"Silence!" Masked Knight #1 cut in, hitting Ren with his shield. The impact sent his glasses flying off of his face and sent him tumbling into Goro, leaving the two as a small pile, tired, hurt, and confused.

"Just stay there with your failure of a brother, Amamiya; your turn will come," Kamoshida said as Masked Knight #1 pointed his lance towards the two of them. "However, first on the chopping block would be…"

Haru audibly swallowed as Masked Knight #2 turned the tip of his sword to Haru and forced her into a corner.

"Normally, I give my female prisoners special treatment. The attractive ones, anyway. You certainly fit that bill, Okumura. You've got a nice face, and I know you have a hot body under all of that baggy clothing, but alas, a king can't subject himself to someone's sloppy seconds."

"Sloppy-What are you-" Haru's rambles were cut short as Kamoshida walked over and punched her in the stomach. The only thing that came out of her mouth was an agonized cry.

"Still, even if I can't help myself to you, physically, hearing a woman's screams of pain can also be pretty exciting. We'll keep going at it like this until I've had my fill, then I'll let you die."

And he hit her again.

And she screamed again.

Another hit.

Another scream.

Another hit.

* * *

_God… dammit,_ Ren thought to himself. _I'm in Tokyo for not even a week, and I'm about to be killed. Mom and Dad always warned me about the city, but I don't think they were ever talking about being decapitated by a guy in a speedo. Goddammit._

Ren didn't want to accept it, but he had no choice: he was going to die. Not just him, but also Okumura, the girl who was being beaten in front of him just to satisfy her assailant's fetish, and Goro, his guardian. His best friend. His brother. They were all going to die, and he couldn't do a thing about it.

As the last ounces of hope left his mind, the blue butterfly from before appeared in his line of sight.

_This is truly an unjust game…_ a voice rang out. _Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you…_

The butterfly vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

_What's the matter? Are you simply going to watch?_ A new voice asked, a mirror of his own.

* * *

_You've got to be kidding me!_ Goro thought to himself. _Am I really going to die? In a castle, of all places? By Kamoshida's hand, of all people's hands? No, no, no, nononononono NO! I can't! There's still too much for me to do! At the very least, it needs to be only me who dies! Okumura… I'm sure she's a good person, but if only one of us could walk out of here, it should be Ren. Oh God, if no one else, at least Ren…_

Goro didn't want to accept it, but he had no choice: he was going to die. Not just him, but also Haru, the girl who he never even had the chance to do anything with, and Ren, his confidante. His best friend. His brother. They were all going to die, and he couldn't do a thing about it.

As the last ounces of despair filled his mind, the blue butterfly from before appeared in his line of sight.

_This is truly an unjust game…_ a voice rang out. _Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you…_

The butterfly vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

_You're not really going to let this stand, are you?_ A new voice asked, a mirror of his own.

* * *

Ren looked around the cell and saw nothing. No one knew had entered, no one old was saying anything, yet he still heard a voice.

_Are you forsaking them to save yourself?_ The voice asked. _Death awaits them if you do nothing._

_I know that!_ Ren screamed in his head, the only place the voice could be coming from. _But I can't fight these guys! If I try to do that, it'll only make things worse!_

_Was your previous decision a mistake, then?_

* * *

Goro looked around the cell and saw nothing. No one knew had entered, no one old was saying anything, yet he still heard a voice.

_Two people besides yourself are going to die, and at least one of them you care about,_ the voice said. _If you just sit idly by, you'll lose everything. Your life, your brother, your chances at finding that man, all of it will go up in flames._

_I know that!_ Goro screamed in his head, the only place the voice could be coming from. _You think I'm that stupid?! I'm not! Like hell I want my brother to die! Like hell I want the last two years to go to waste! Don't say stuff that's so damn obvious!_

_What are you going to do, then?_

* * *

Images flashed before Ren's eyes. A woman crying for help. A drunken man trying to force her into a car. Ren, himself, working up the courage to intervene. The man tripping over his own feet and hitting his head hard on the sidewalk. Ren barely touched him, yet the man still convinced the police that he was assaulted, and even forced the woman to go along with it. That one moment of altruism ruined Ren's life. If he hadn't intervened, if he had just minded his own business, he wouldn't be in this mess.

Even so, he didn't regret doing what was right.

_It wasn't a mistake,_ Ren told the voice. _It never could have been._

_Very well,_ the voice responded. _I have heeded your resolve._

Out of nowhere, Ren felt like someone was trying to drill a hole through his skull.

* * *

Images flashed before Goro's eyes. A body dangling from a ceiling. Countless pairs of adults throwing low punches and laughing at the sight of checks. One lone pair of adults having a smile on their face. Goro, himself, being embraced by a young Ren. Ren and the Amamiyas were the first good thing to happen to Goro since his mother's passing. Everything Goro did with Ren reminded him that someone cared enough to give him the time of day. Every second Goro was around Ren was one where he was legitimately happy, and at the end of the day, that was all he ever truly asked for.

What kind of person would just let that be thrown away?

_I'll fight!_ Goro shouted at the voice. _Even if it's meaningless, I refuse to lose everything that's important to me!_

_Very well,_ the voice responded. _I have heeded your resolve._

Out of nowhere, Goro felt like someone was trying to drill a hole through his skull.

* * *

_Vow to me,_ the voice said as Ren screamed at the top of his lungs. _I am thou, thou art I. Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name, and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell, itself!_

The pain vanished. At the same time, Kamoshida stopped beating on Okumura and left her alone in the corner, gasping for air through her crying.

"Alright, that's enough of that," Kamoshida said. "Execute her!"

"That's enough, already!" Ren shouted, standing up from the floor.

While he didn't have time to fully process it, it was weird that Goro was standing, as well.

* * *

_Vow to me,_ the voice said as Goro screamed at the top of his lungs. _I am thou, thou art I. Thou who cast the world aside just to satisfy thine own ambitions! Call upon my name, and pass thy judgement! Show the resolve of thy will to defeat all who may oppose thee, even if thou's enemies be safeguarded in Heaven, itself!_

The pain vanished. At the same time, Kamoshida stopped beating on Okumura and left her alone in the corner, gasping for air through her crying.

"Alright, that's enough of that," Kamoshida said. "Execute her!"

"That's enough, already!" Goro shouted, standing up from the floor.

While he didn't have time to fully process it, it was weird that Ren was standing, as well.

"Oh? Are you two really in such a hurry to die?" Kamoshida asked. "Fine. Guards! Kill them, first!"

"No!" Haru cried weakly.

Masked Knight #1 and Masked Knight #2 stepped in front of Goro and Ren, weapons at the ready. They lifted their weapons into a stabbing position, and when Kamoshida nodded his head at them, they jutted their weapons straight at their targets' hearts.

The weapons never hit anything, though, as a sudden burst of wind blew them back before contact was made.

Before Goro could question what had happened, he felt a small weight on his face. Grabbing at it, it felt like a mask, of some kind. In his peripherals, he saw that Ren had a mask, as well, a domino mask fashioned like a bird with black markings around the eyes.

Suddenly, Goro had the urge to rip off his own mask.

* * *

"Oh? Are you two really in such a hurry to die?" Kamoshida asked. "Fine. Guards! Kill them, first!"

"No!" Haru cried weakly.

Masked Knight #1 and Masked Knight #2 stepped in front of Goro and Ren, weapons at the ready. They lifted their weapons into a stabbing position, and when Kamoshida nodded his head at them, they jutted their weapons straight at their targets' hearts.

The weapons never hit anything, though, as a sudden burst of wind blew them back before contact was made.

Before Ren could question what had happened, he felt a small weight on his face. Grabbing at it, it felt like a mask, of some kind. In his peripherals, he saw that Goro had a mask, as well, a black plague doctor's mask missing the bottom half, the beak and the sides decorated with white ribbons.

Suddenly, Ren had the urge to rip off his own mask.

* * *

Every second that Goro pulled on the mask was a second of pure torture. The mask felt like it was glued onto his skin, like removing it would actually be removing his own face. Yet he couldn't stop. Something was compelling him to keep going at it, and if it had anything to do with what had been happening as of late, he was willing to go along with it.

With a might yell, Goro ripped the mask off, blood covering the area it once sat. In spite of this, Goro felt no pain. As he stared at Kamoshida and the Masked Knights with his now yellow eyes, he only felt relief and satisfaction.

Then he was lit ablaze with blue fire.

* * *

Every second that Ren pulled on the mask was a second of pure torture. The mask felt like it was glued onto his skin, like removing it would actually be removing his own face. Yet he couldn't stop. Something was compelling him to keep going at it, and if it had anything to do with what had been happening as of late, he was willing to go along with it.

With a might yell, Ren ripped the mask off, blood covering the area it once sat. In spite of this, Ren felt no pain. As he stared at Kamoshida and the Masked Knights with his now yellow eyes, he only felt relief and satisfaction.

Then he was lit ablaze with blue fire.

The fire caused him no harm. Almost as soon as it appeared, it flew off of Ren's body and into the air above him.

While Ren wasn't hurt by the fire, it did do something to him: it changed his wardrobe. Gone was the bland outfit that was his school uniform. In its place was a black ankle-length tailcoat, a high-necked waistcoat with gold accents, black jogger-style pants, brown-black winklepickers, and a pair of red gloves.

More change was abound, this time with the fire, itself. The blue flames became surrounded by black chains, and the fire morphed into an entirely new figure. The figure had a red half jacket over a black waistcoat; its legs were an identical shade of red and ended at razor tipped high heels; black, feathery wings jutted out of its back; its head was simply a black mass with swirling patches of red taking on the shape of eyes and a mouth, with two large horns jutting forward and a cylindrical mass jutting upwards to resemble a top hat.

It looked human, but it clearly wasn't, and with a flap of its wings, it sent Masked Knight #2 crashing into the wall and made Kamoshida run off to the side.

* * *

The fire caused him no harm. Almost as soon as it appeared, it flew off of Goro's body and into the air above him.

While Ren wasn't hurt by the fire, it did do something to him: it changed his wardrobe. Gone was the bland outfit that was his school uniform. In its place was a gray military uniform, a blood red cape matched only by the ends of his sleeves, epaulettes covered in dark splotches, a belt with a buckle featuring an upside-down "A," and a pair of gray gloves.

More change was abound, this time with the fire, itself. The blue flames became surrounded by black chains, and the fire morphed into an entirely new figure. The figure had a stern, metallic face framed around a large jaw brace shaped like golden wings and a blood red visor; its body was draped in a uniform similar to Goro's, only with a pleated skirt and gold lines running around the arms, legs, and torso; long, black fabric hung out of each of its gray epaulettes, and the same black coloring surrounded the letters "R" and "H" on its torso.

It looked human, but it clearly wasn't, and with a single punch, it sent Masked Knight #1 crashing into the wall and made Kamoshida run off to the side.

* * *

Goro couldn't believe it. On top of every other crazy thing that was happening, now some sort of giant muscle man appearing out of nowhere to help him. It was a little much, but he'd make do with it, somehow.

"A-Akechi-kun? Amamiya-kun? Wh-What's going on with you two?" Haru asked.

""Two?"" Goro said in unison with another. Turning to his side, it was only now that he realized that Ren was in the same situation as him: they both had their outfits change into something extravagant, and they both had strange creatures floating above them.

"Ren?"

"Goro?"

"...We'll talk about this, later"

"Agreed," Ren said. "For now, what the hell _are_ these things?"

"I am the arrow shooting through the gloom, Robin Hood!" The one by Goro shouted in a voice matching his own.

"I am the pillager of twilight, Arsene!" The one by Ren shouted in a voice matching his own.

"We are the rebellious souls that reside within you."

"If you so desire, we will grant you the power to break through this crisis."

""Well, what are you waiting for?!" Goro and Ren shouted.

""Exactly that!"" Robin Hood and Arsene shouted.

"I don't know what this is all about, but I still have an execution to carry out!" Kamoshida shouted from his corner of the cell. "Guards! Kill them!"

Masked Knight #1 and Masked Knight #2 suddenly sprang to life and were on their feet. Goro readied himself to fight the knights, but before anything could happen, they both exploded into masses of dark energy. Like the blue fire that had become Robin Hood, each mass of energy morphed into an entirely different shape from what it once was, though unlike with Goro and Ren, the masses took on identical shapes: floating Jack-o'-Lanterns wearing witch hats sitting atop capes with a white hand poking out holding a lit lantern.

"Just try and defeat my men at their full strength!" Kamoshida shouted.

With a shout of "Heeho!" of all things, the monsters charged at Goro and Ren. If this had happened a minute ago, Goro wouldn't have any idea what he should be doing, and he knew that Ren was the same. But it wasn't a minute ago. He wasn't as weak as he was a minute ago, and neither was Ren. That was why as soon as one of the monsters got close to Goro, he punched it in the face and sent it into the floor. Ren, trying to match that, kicked the other one into the wall.

"Pity the enemies before you!" Robin Hood shouted.

"Detest the enemies before you!" Arsene shouted.

"Change that commiseration into power…"

"Change that animosity into power…"

""and unleash it!""

""GO!"" Goro and Ren shouted.

Robin Hood and Arsene took off towards the monsters. Collecting themselves, the monsters fired fireballs from their lanterns, but Robin Hood and Arsene managed to deflect every blast towards areas of no concern, including the hem of Kamoshida's cape that he was now desperately trying to make not be on fire. Arsene kicked one monster to the floor while Robin Hood uppercutted the other into the ceiling. From seemingly nowhere, Robin Hood summoned a large bow and arrow into his hands, the bow shaped like dark yellow wings with "ROBIN HOOD" written in the center.

Before the monster on the floor could recover, Arsene flew up and started charging a dark energy in its hands. Before the monster at the ceiling could recover, Robin Hood drew its bow and transformed the arrow into a pillar of light. In perfect harmony, the two beings fired off their attacks, destroying their respective opponents and leaving nothing behind.

Goro and Ren fist bumped in satisfaction.

"You little shits!" Kamoshida shouted stepping back over to the center of the cell.

"If that's your men at their best, I can honestly say that I'm not impressed," Goro said.

"You _dare_ treat your king with such disrespect?! If my guards aren't enough for you, maybe I'll kill you, myself! We'll see how confident you are once I crush every bone in your-"

Kamoshida never finished his sentence. The sound of a heavy collison rang through the air, and the self-proclaimed king fell to the ground, revealing a panting Haru holding her shovel out in an offensive stance.

"What is going on?!" Haru shouted.

If only someone actually knew.

* * *

**After an incredibly long wait (sorry about that, grad school's a real kick in the urethra), the story's back with everyone's favorite moment: the Awakening! Nothing's different about Ren, but as you can tell, Goro's outfit is noticeably different, since his personality isn't the exact same as it was in the game. Even Robin Hood looks different, and bonus points to anyone who can figure out which version of Superman his look takes after.**

**Also, I started a tumblr under the same name, so you can follow me there if you feel like it. Until next time!**


	3. The Cat in the Cradle

 

"And locked! And the key goes into the water… there it goes. Goodbye. Now, can someone please tell me what's going on?"

Goro wanted to give Haru and answer, he truly did, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing rational came to mind. A castle appearing out of nowhere where his school should have been. Masked Knights that turned into flying jack-o'-lanterns. The gym teacher walking around half-naked, acting like he was in charge of everything and threatening to kill everyone. Then the cherry on top of the surreal tree: him and Ren spontaneously combusting fashionable outfits and monstrous depictions of literary figures.

"This is all such a goddamn mess," Goro mumbled. "Ren, what do you think?"

"I think my gloves are too big," Ren said, tugging at their hems.

"Of course they are. Of course you would worry about that. Those things, Robin Hood and Arsene, they disappeared when our masks came back a few seconds after Kamoshida went down-nice one by the way, Okumura."

Haru flashed a smile.

"We don't know if we'll be able to call them out a second time, and we don't know how long it'll take for more of those goons to come and check up on their boss, so let's get the hell out of here."

"If we can even figure out how to do that," Ren said.

* * *

From there, Ren, Goro, and Okumura made their way through the bowels of the mysterious castle. To Ren's dismay, it wasn't much of anything to look at. Basically a standard dungeon with the standard dungeon necessities: jail cells, big boxes and barrels, drab-looking brickwork, things of that nature. Even the river that seemed to have no business being there didn't seem to add much in terms of ambiance.

At the very least, the lack of an interesting setting allowed Ren time to contemplate the situation he was in, the conclusion being that it was absolutely insane. Castles appearing where schools should be. Demon Knights turning into demon pumpkins. Guys walking around in speedos beating people up and threatening them with murder. Summoning monsters while magically getting attractive outfits.

Life in the big city wasn't all fun and games, it seemed.

"Ren, Okumura, down!" As Ren thought about this, Goro grabbed him and Okumura by their sleeves and pulled the two of them down behind some boxes. The three of them had wandered through the area for a few minutes before eventually finding their way to a spiralling stairwell. Ren assumed that they would be going into the stairwell, but apparently Goro had other ideas.

Ideas that were completely justified, as it turned out. Ren had missed it when his thoughts were elsewhere, but on the other side of the river, two Knights had shown up, heading in the direction of the cell Kamoshida was locked up in. They were probably going to check up on their "king," Ren assumed. Okumura looked like she was about to yelp in surprise, but Goro quickly put a hand over her mouth to silence her.

"Okay, they're gone," Goro said. "Let's keep moving."

* * *

Following Goro's lead, the three of them made their way up the staircase and into an area nearly identical to the one they were just in, much to Goro's annoyance. A similar quantity of jail cells, a similar random assortment of barrels and boxes, a similar drab layout of bricks, a similar river of rushing water that had no business being there; the only thing that was really different was that the cells (and one suspended cage)were occupied by people with iron masks locked around their heads.

That was certainly something.

"Oh no…" Haru said, hands briefly in front of her mouth. "That screaming… Mr. Kamoshida really is torturing people! And look at their clothes. They're wearing our school uniform! He's torturing his own students! What do we do?!"

"Nothing," Goro said without hesitation.

"But we can't just leave them here!"

"Actually, we can. Those guards we saw earlier are probably arriving at Kamoshida's cell right now, and it'll only take a second for them to send out an alert to the rest of them. If we waste time freeing people who probably aren't even real, we'll just make ourselves easy targets and end up right back where we started."

"Not even-I don't understand. Amamiya-kun, please say something!"

"I actually agree with Goro," Ren said. Haru's face fell. "Look, we don't even know how to get out of here, so trying to bring other people along would do more harm than good. It sucks, but this is a situation where we need to be putting ourselves first. But once we find the exit and get a clearer idea of what's going on, we'll come back here and save these guys. That's a promise, Okumura-senpai."

"Okay," Haru said, her face regaining some composure. "If we really are going to come back, then it should be alright."

_Naive saps, the both of them,_ Goro thought to himself.

"You know, now that I think about it, the issue of whether or not we should rescue these people is kind of moot since we can't move forward," Goro said.

"What do you mean?" Haru asked.

Goro directed Ren and Haru's attention towards the drawbridge in front of them. Each half of the bridge was raised into the air and separated from its opposite half by several meters, making traversing to the other side a daunting task. There also didn't appear to be any sort of mechanism that controlled the drawbridge, meaning there was no way to lower it.

"That would present a problem," Ren said. "Any ideas?"

"I can help," a voice said.

"Well, it seems like this transformation has increased our physical abilities, so we might be able to jump across," Goro said, ignoring the voice.

"I don't know, that's a pretty wide gap," Ren said. "And what about Okumura-senpai?"

"Right, forgot about her. Even if one of us carried her, the extra weight might throw us off."

"I can help," a voice said.

"Oh! Akechi-kun! What if you used one of your arrows to make some sort of ropeway for us to climb across?" Haru asked, not noticing the voice.

"That's actually not a bad idea, Okumura," Goro said. "Won't work, though. Robin Hood's arrows turn into light, remember? I don't think it's hard light, either, so we probably couldn't tie something around it."

"I can help," a voice said.

"What if we just hit the bridge really hard and made it fall down?" Ren asked, assumingly ignoring the voice.

"Can you really do that, though?" Haru asked. "The bridge might be too sturdy to be moved like that. Also, you and Akechi-kun probably don't have great control of your powers, so you might just destroy the bridge and fall into the water."

"Well that wouldn't be an issue if Goro and I can figure out how to magic up some bathing suits."

"Not sure if that's actually a thing we can do, though," Goro said.

"I CAN HELP!" A voice shouted. Ren and Haru started looking around in confusion.

"I think it came from over there," Goro sighed, pointing over towards the left side of the bridge. Ren and Haru tracked the source of the voice to the same place Goro did: a jail cell at the far end of the path they were on. Inside the cell was, indeed, a person. The person was incredibly short, the majority of their body, including a mask over the top half of their head, pitch black in color, save for their hands, feet, ears, and area around their mouth. A yellow scarf was tied around their neck, and a utility belt hung around their waist, two large pouches at each hip and what appeared to be a sword and a slingshot near their groin.

The person in the cell also had a tail, was covered in hair, and had a head distinctly shaped like a cat's.

"This is so much worse than I thought," Goro groaned.

"What the hell are we looking at?" Ren asked.

"Aw, how cute!" Haru exclaimed.

"Admire me, later, get me out, now!" The Cat shouted. "I was captured by those guards and locked up here. The key's hanging on that wall over there, so hurry up and free me!"

"You can't be serious," Goro said. "You think we're just going to roll over and listen to someone as suspicious as you?"

"Suspicious? Me? No way! I'm not an enemy! If I was an enemy, why would I be locked up in this cage?!"

"Reverse psychology! Question mark?" Haru asked. "Actually, it really wouldn't make sense for her to do that."

"Listen to Skirt, she's actually making sense! You need to get out of here, right? I can help you do that if you just let me out. I'd do it myself, but these bars block all of my abilities."

"What do you think, Goro? Should we listen to him?" Ren asked.

"You definitely should, Birdman."

"Quiet, cat," Goro said, ignoring The Cat's protest to that address. "This is weird, this is all so, so weird. Ren, Okumura, you two seem ready to trust it because it looks all cute and innocent, but that's not enough to actually make a smart decision. However, we are _very_ desperate, and there's something about it that I want to look into, so I say let the cat out of the bag."

"I'm not a cat, but yes! Do that!"

"Besides, we outnumber it. If it really is an enemy, we'll just kill it."

"No, don't do that!" The Cat shouted onto deaf ears.

Ren grabbed the key off of the wall and used it to unlock The Cat's jail cell. The door opened, and The Cat immediately jumped out, stretching its body as if it had just woken up from a long nap. Haru smiled gleefully at that.

"Was it really that cramped in there?" Ren asked.

"Freedom always makes you stretch, Coattails, regardless of the space of your confinement."

"Yeah, yeah," Goro said with an eyeroll. "Now that you're out, why don't you tell us how to get out of here, cat?"

"Don't call me a cat! I am Morgana!"

"I don't see how the two are mutually exclusive."

"Akechi-kun, please," Haru said. "If Morgana-chan doesn't want to be called a cat, then I think we should respect her wishes."

"Nice to know that _someone_ has some common decency," Morgana said. Goro opened his mouth again, but immediately shut it when he heard the familiar sound of clanging metal.

"They're coming!" Goro shouted. "Morgana, was it? Time to put your money where your mouth is and get us out of here!"

"You think I don't know that, Birdman?" Morgana growled. "Follow me."

Morgana took off from the group, but they were quick to follow him. Morgana had led them back to the drawbridge, the two halves still as raised as they were a minute ago. Goro was about to say something, but then Morgana directed his attention to a large stone bust of Kamoshida's top half. Looking at it, Goro saw that there was a bit of an indent near its lower lip, and he immediately understood what Morgana was getting at.

Goro stepped forward, put his hand on the indent, and pulled down on the statue. The mouth separated as if the real thing was opening his own up to eat before coming back together. Simultaneously, the two halves of the bridge came down and joined together, opening up the path.

"Scooby-Doo," Ren said with wide eyes.

"I don't know what that means, but you're clearly amazed by my brilliance, aren't you?" Morgana asked with a smirk.

"I never would've guessed it'd be something like that," Haru said. "It really _is_ amazing that you were able to figure that out."

"Yes, we're all astounded. Let's be astounded somewhere where we're all less likely to get stabbed," Goro said.

"He's right. We've got to move," Ren said. With head nods from Haru and Morgana, the four of them ran across the bridge to the other side of the area as fast as they could.

Reaching the other side at the exact same time that a Masked Knight exited a room.

"Now that's some black comedic timing," Goro said, flashing the Masked Knight a glare as soon as it turned to them. Ren flashed a similar glare, but Haru's face turned to one of freight as she stepped behind Goro and Ren and held her shovel up against her chest.

"Yeah, you probably should just let us handle this, Skirt," Morgana said. "Not trying to be mean, but fighting Shadows takes skill that only the three of us have."

_Shadow? Is that what these things are called?_ Goro thought to himself.

"Come! Zorro!" Morgana shouted. In an instant, its body was surrounded in blue fire. The same blue fire that Goro and Ren had found themselves covered in not long ago. Just like back then, the fire flew off of Morgana's body and into the air; ethereal chains appeared beneath the blue flames, and the fire began to morph into an entirely new shape. When the process was finished, floating behind Morgana was a figure dressed in all black with silver decorations; a muscular upper body sat atop a thin lower body; save for its jaw and giant mustache, both blue in color, its face was masked by a black sombrero, holes cut into it to show grey eyes surrounded by yellow sclera; a black cape hung off of its shoulders, a rapier hung off of its waist, and around said waist was a red and silver belt with a large, silver "Z" as a belt buckle.

This was Zorro, the same kind of being that Goro and Ren could also summon.

"I knew it. You really can do the same thing as us!" Goro shouted.

"I think you have that backwards. _You_ can do the same thing as _me_ , amateur. Speaking of which, hurry up with it, already!" As Morgana said that, the Masked Knight in front of them exploded into a familiar mass of dark energy. More monsters were coming. They needed to be taken down.

"Let's go, Ren! You know what to do?!"

"Sure hope so!" Ren shouted.

Goro and Ren grabbed their respective masks and ripped them off of their faces. Much less blood that time. Blue fire shot off of their bodies, and in an instant, Robin Hood and Arsene had returned. Meanwhile, the dark energy had finished its transformation, but instead of merely one figure, it became two: the same floating jack-o'-lantern they fought before, and some sort of floating pink demon with a sharp object jutting out of its groinal region. Goro wasn't sure if he was more shocked by that or by the fact that one Knight didn't always equal one monster.

"Charge!" Morgana shouted. Zorro drew its rapier and shot out at the jack-o'-lantern. The jack-o'-lantern moved away from Zorro's thrust, but not before the blade sliced off a chunk of its head, the piece of pumpkin vanishing before it could hit the ground. The jack-o'-lantern shot a fireball at Zorro, but one swing of its blade cut it in two.

With the jack-o'-lantern occupied by Morgana, Goro and Ren were left to contend with the pink demon. The pink demon flew towards the duo and swung a claw at them, but Robin Hood was quick to parry with its bow. The pink demon was knocked back, and in that moment, Arsene swooped in and punched it into a wall.

"You cheeky little brats!" The pink demon shouted. Quickly regaining its bearings, fired off a blast of dark energy from its groinal protrusion, but Robin Hood immediately countered with an arrow of light. The two attacks canceled each other out, creating a cloud of smoke in their wake, and through that cloud flew Arsene. In mid-flight, Arsene broke off one of its heels, a new one immediately regrowing in its place, and held it up like a knife. Before the pink demon could react, the weapon was already jammed into its throat, dark energy spewing out of its wound.

When the weapon was removed, the pink demon fell to the floor and vanished into nothing.

* * *

"Booyah," Ren said as Arsene finished off its opponent.

"Don't do that. Please don't do that, again," Goro said.

"Fine. Now we need to go help Morgana-"

Over on the other side of the area, Zorro moved its blade in a "Z" pattern, releasing a funnel of wind at the jack-o'-lantern. The funnel hit the jack-o'-lantern dead center, and its body was torn to shreds, orange chunks and bits of cloth draping the walls for several seconds before completely vanishing.

"Doesn't look like it needs our help," Goro said.

"That was incredible!" Okumura shouted as Arsene and Robin Hood vanished, Ren and Goro's masks returning as they did. "The way you three fought off those monsters with your own monsters was unlike anything I've ever seen before!"

"Yeah, I am pretty great, aren't I, Skirt?" Morgana asked. "Coattails, Birdman, you guys weren't half bad, either. Clearly greenhorns when it comes to fighting Demons, but you handle your Personas pretty well."

"Our what?" Ren asked.

"So these things we summon are called Personas, then?" Goro asked.

"That they are, Birdman," Morgana said. "A Persona is the mask a person wears to hide their true self from hardships of the world. People like the three of us are able to personify those masks, no pun intended, and summon them into a physical form to fight with."

"Wow, that's… that's something else," Ren said. With everything that had been happening that day, something like this shouldn't have been so shocking for Ren to hear, but he seemed to have overestimated the level of his conditioning. Though Ren still had to wonder why Morgana was calling those monsters both "Shadows" and "Demons."

"And these Personas, we summon them by removing our masks, right?" Goro asked.

"Yeah, obviously. Not much of a quick learner are-"

"How come you don't have to?" Goro asked, cutting Morgana off.

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"Ren and I both have to take off our masks to summon our Personas, but not you. Why is that?"

"Well, that's, um, because I'm special! Yeah!" What a terrible lie.

"You're full of shit, aren't you?" Goro asked.

"I am _not_!" Morgana shouted.

"Really? 'Cause you're doing a pretty good job of fooling me."

"I could say the same to you, Birdman!"

"And enough with that, already! My name's Goro Akechi, and-"

"Hey, you guys wanna try fighting when we _aren't_ in mortal peril?" Ren asked. Like a steak knife through the air, his words moved. "Also, I'm Ren Amamiya."

"I'm Haru Okumura, and I agree with Amamiya-kun," Okumura said. "Akechi-kun, you can keep arguing with her if you want, but weren't you the one rushing us to leave?"

Goro stared at Okumura for a few seconds before letting out a sigh.

"Fine," Goro said. "I'm not done with it, Okumura, but we really need to get out of here. Lead the way, cat."

"You got it, and again! I am not a cat!"

Morgana took off from the group, leaving the rest to follow behind him. Eventually, Morgana got them out of the dungeon and up a flight of stairs that led to the entrance hall Ren, Goro, and Okumura initially found themselves in. They tried to go out the way they came, but the door was locked; it would do them no good. As such, Morgana directed them past the front door and into a new hallway. As soon as they were in, Okumura ran to a door to try and open it.

"It won't open!" Okumura cried. "We're stuck here! Now they're going to catch us and-"

"Okumura-senpai, there are literally _two_ doors in this hall," Ren said. He then walked up to the second door, tapped it slightly, and the door immediately opened up.

"O-Oh, right. My bad." Ren could see Goro trying his best to hold in a groan.

The four entered the new room. Red flags with Kamoshida's face hung up on the walls and wooden picnic tables were spread around the area, leading Ren to believe that this was some sort of lunch area for the Masked Knights.

"Okay, this should be good," Morgana said. "See the ventilation shaft above that bookshelf? Take off that grate, and you can crawl through to the other side and get out of here."

"I'll do it!" Okumura said. Before anyone could say anything, Okumura had climbed atop the bookshelf, jammed her shovel into the grate, and pried it off, the grate hitting the floor with a loud crash.

"I could have just made a hole with an arrow, you know," Goro said.

"I know, but I haven't been able to do anything since we started escaping."

"Regardless, the four of us can finally get out of here," Ren said.

"No, just the three of you. I'm staying here," Morgana said.

"What?" Okumura gasped.

"The hell you are!" Goro shouted, turning to Morgana with a scowl. "I still have questions you need to answer!"

"Last I checked, I wasn't obligated to do you any favors. That being said, I'm only staying behind because there's some stuff I have to take care of on my own. Go collect your bearings and come back tomorrow."

"You think I'm just going to sit back and-"

"Goro, those things are gonna be on us any minute, so I really don't think we have a choice other than listening to him," Ren said.

"But it's… fine!" With a huff, Goro climbed up the bookshelf and into the ventilation shaft. Okumura immediately followed him, and Ren was left alone with Morgana.

"You _will_ explain all of this if we come back, right?"

"Of course," Morgana said. "Lying wouldn't do either of us any good, after all."

Ren nodded his head and crawled through the ventilation shaft.

* * *

"Let's move!" As soon as Ren had exited the ventilation shaft, Goro forced him and Okumura into a mad dash away from the castle.

"What's the plan, Goro?" Ren asked.

"We run. We keep running until we find someone who can help us."

The three of them had gotten out of the castle's immediate area an re-entered the nearby alleyway.

"Someone normal and not anthropomorphic, hopefully-"

At a certain point, red and black swirls started clouding Ren's vision, but only for a brief moment.

"-and then they can give us some direction-"

"Akechi-kun! Amamiya-kun! Your clothes!" Okumura shouted.

"What?" Ren paused, looked down at his body, and felt his eyes widen. Goro was doing the same, which meant that they both had noticed the same startling surprise: their clothes had gone back to normal.

"They vanished as mysteriously as they appeared," Goro said.

The buzzing of a cell phone went off. Ren pulled his phone out of his pocket (he ignored that Goro was doing the same thing)and saw that not only was his phone working again, but he had a notification for the mysterious app that he couldn't delete. Ren's finger hovered over the screen for a bit before he pressed the app's icon, Goro doing the same.

"youhavereturnedtotherealworld. welcomeback," said a voice from the phone.

"'Returned from the real world'? Does this mean we're really back?" Ren asked.

Wordlessly, Goro took off into the alleyway. A minute later, he came back, panting hard.

"Akechi-kun, what's wrong?" Okumura asked.

"It's back," Goro said. "The school's back where it should be. No castle, no talking cats, it's just Shujin Academy, again."

"So we're really back?"

"Looks like it, Okumura-senpai," Ren said. "The sun's setting, so it doesn't look like we're doing the thing where time is frozen until we get back, though."

"Oh, you're right," Goro said. "Wait, how long were we in there, for?" Goro pulled out his phone, then quickly shoved it back into his pocket. "5:30. We were in there for almost six hours, and we were probably unconscious for over half of that. Oh, that is super bad."

"Um, I gotta go," Okumura suddenly said. Looking over at her, Ren saw that she was looking at her own phone, as well. "I'm sorry to leave like this, but-"

"Who said you were leaving, Okumura?" Goro asked. "You think that we can just go through all of that and not talk about it, as soon as we can?"

"I know that, but I got some messages on my phone-"

"Are they life or death?"

"Technically, no-"

"Good, because this definitely _is_ , so…" Okumura's eyes darted back and forth between Goro and her phone before she eventually pocketed her cell phone.

"Okay. Let's go somewhere and talk about it."

What an odd friendship this was meant to be, Ren mused.

* * *

**As a reminder, I now have a tumblr under the same handle. Feel free to follow me there to ask about this story or see when I post things for other fandoms and put out random musings.**


	4. Back to the Blue

"How about that place, over there?" Okumura asked.

"They willingly misspelled one of the words in their name to try and be comical. I think you know my answer," Goro said. "Oh, there's a nice place."

"That's a wine bar. We're not old enough to go in a wine bar."

"Not with that attitude."

"I'd really rather not."

"Baby."

"Can we please just pick a place, already? I am figuratively starving," Ren said.

Between getting hazed by his peers, being passive aggressively threatened by his teacher who then proceeded to try and murder him, awakening superpowers, and befriending a talking cat, today had been a weird day for Ren. With all of that behind him, Goro, and Okumura, the plan was to go somewhere and talk about everything. The only problem was that no one could decide where they would actually go. It didn't help that they kept stopping their walk every few minutes when Okumura's phone started vibrating only for Goro to keep telling her to leave it alone.

"Why can't we just go to a Big Bang Burger? We've been walking around for half an hour and we've passed, like, five of them," Ren said.

"We can't!" Okumura said. "I mean, well, given the circumstances, fast food doesn't really seem like it would set the right mood, don't you think?"

"She's right, you know; ambiance is pretty important," Goro said. Okumura gave a weak-looking smile. "That being said, we really should just pick a place already."

Eventually, the three of them were able to agree on an Italian restaurant that had enough class to satisfy Goro. Goro ordered a plate of risotto nero, Okumura a caprese salad, and Ren, in spite of the side eye the waiter gave him, ordered three personal pizzas for himself.

"So… what the hell was all of that?" Goro asked after their food arrived.

"That's rhetorical, right?" Ren asked, halfway through one of the pizzas.

"Obviously. Just need to get the ball rolling. Why don't we start with what we think we know?"

"Let's go over everything we know," Okumura said. "We were just heading back to school for a bit because you were helping me carry a bag of fertilizer. When we got to where Shujin was supposed to be, the sky was blood red, and standing where the building was supposed to stand was a freaky-looking castle. We were captured by Knights, then their king came to see us be killed, and for some reason, their king was Mr. Kamoshida."

"But then Goro and I got magic powers, busted our way out of jail, and then teamed up with a talking cat thing so we could all escape," Ren said, finishing his first pizza. "Anyone got any ideas on how all of that worked?"

"I think I might have an idea," Goro said.

As Ren started on his second pizza, Goro pulled out his phone and brought the screen over to a familiar icon, one that Ren knew was also on his phone.

"A while ago, this app showed up on my phone, even though I never downloaded it," Goro said. "I kept trying to delete it, but it would always come back without any action on my part. I thought it was a virus, but now I'm thinking that it's something else."

"Come to think of it, I heard a computerized voice when we came back here. Did it come from the app?" Okumura asked.

"It did, which is why I think there's a connection, of some kind. In all likelihood, this app is what let us go into that other world."

"Really? But I went with you, and I don't have that app."

"Must be proximity, then. After all, I should be the only one who has this," Goro said, giving a side glance in Ren's direction.

Okumura looked at the two of them for a few seconds before going into her salad.

"Alright, so this app thing is probably how we ended up in that other world, we can agree on that," Ren said. "That still leaves the obvious question of what that other world even is. Didn't you have an idea about that, Goro?"

"Indeed, I did. It's quite obvious, really: it's a parallel universe," Goro said before swallowing a forkful of risotto.

""Huh?"" Ren and Okumura both said.

"Was that not obvious? I mean, think about it: does the Kamoshida you know command a legion of demons and walk around like he's in a bad porno?"

"I can't comment on the second thing since I've only known him a day, but I'm going to assume a no on both things," Ren said.

"And you would be right to assume so. The Kamoshida I know isn't capable of anything that that one could do, so they can't possibly be the same person. Then there's the fact that we found a castle standing where the school should have stood. A person like me couldn't have possibly gotten the directions wrong, meaning that that castle had to have been exactly where Shujin Academy was supposed to be."

"So it really is a parallel world!" Okumura shouted.

"It really was a parallel world," Okumura said at a lower volume. "Back when we all got those headaches, that must have been a sign that we were crossing over."

"So much for global cooling," Ren said with a smirk. Goro rolled his eyes at him, knowingly.

"We're going to go back in there, right?" Okumura asked.

"Of course," Ren said. "If we could get sucked into that world, then that means other people can, too. We need to learn more about this and make sure no one else can get stuck in there."

"And we need to help the people still in there! Morgana-chan, who's fighting all those monsters by herself, and all the people Mr. Kamoshida's torturing, we have to help all of them!"

Goro also voiced his agreement, though mostly with Ren saying that they needed to learn more about the other world. Ren could see Goro looking at the both of them with varying degrees of annoyance, but he didn't care. Even if there was a risk, this was the right thing to do, so they had to do it.

As Ren alternated between eating his third pizza and looking at his companions with pride, a man slammed his hard on the table.

"Haru. What the hell is this?" The man in question wore a white suit with a violet tie and undershirt and had brown done in a clean, expensive-looking cut. Also of note, Ren realized, was that any sort of confidence or joy Okumura was previously expressing vanished as soon as he appeared.

"Mr. Sugimura? What are you-"

"I called you twenty times, Haru. I sent you fifty texts. Fifty! And you didn't answer any of them!" The man, Sugimura, shouted.

"Sorry," Okumura said, sinking into her chair.

"Your father said you had a half day, today, so you should have been home hours ago for a date, yet here you are galavanting in some third-rate bistro."

"Come on, it's not that bad," Ren said. Sugimura's head snapped over to his direction. Okumura seemed to pick herself up a little, but Goro just kept eating his risotto.

"Was I talking to you?"

"No, which is kind of the problem. We're all trying to have a good dinner/afternoon snack over here, so if you're not the waiter and you only want to yell at Okumura-senpai, would you mind leaving us alone?"

"Excuse you? I can buy and sell you without making my pockets any lighter to do so, and you have the nerve to talk to me like this?" Sugimura asked.

Sugimura turned his attention back to Okumura, who was sinking back into her previous position.

"Who even are these people? These… things?" Sugimura asked.

"Them? They're just, um… just friends from school," Okumura said.

"Is that right? Here I thought you were only friends with maggots. Though I must admit, the resemblance is rather uncanny."

Goro paused for a brief moment before going to his dish.

"Please don't talk about them like that," Okumura said, flinching at Sugimura's glare. "I'm sorry that I didn't come home, immediately. We were hanging out around town, and I had my phone off because we went to see a movie and I forgot to turn it on again until we were done. I didn't think it was that important, so I didn't think there would have been a problem with getting something to eat before going home."

"That's your problem, Haru: you don't think. Ever," Sugimura said.

"That's not-how did you even know I was here? Did you GPS track my phone?"

"And what if I did?"

"That's an invasion of privacy! You can't just sta-follow me around all day, every day! I don't need to be around you whenever you want me to be!"

"You'll be _where_ I want _when_ I want you to be there!"

Sugimura raised an open hand and brought it back behind his head. Okumura closed her eyes and winced well before his arm started moving again. Ren wasted no time standing up to try and get in between them.

Much to his surprise, Goro beat him to it, intercepting Sugimura's slap with a slap of his own.

"Yeah, give me some skin, bro!" Goro shouted. "Oh, wait, I'm wearing gloves."

"What the hell do you think you're-OW!" Sugimura said before he started blowing on his hand.

Ren could catch the tiniest hint of a smile.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been social, but I really wanted to finish my food. I'm Goro Akechi, nice to meet you."

"I don't give a damn about who you are!" Sugimura shouted. "You and this other pest have no right-"

"Oops, dropped my wallet. Clumsy me."

A leather object fell onto the floor near Goro's feet. He picked it up, dusted it off a bit, then put it on the table. Sugimura opened his mouth to say something, but then Ren saw him quickly close it. An odd thing to do because of a wallet, Ren mused.

Ren looked over and smirked. That wasn't Goro's wallet on the table, it was his police badge. Clever girl.

"Now, what else would you like to talk about?" Goro asked, grinning ear to ear.

Sugimura glared at him before turning away from the table.

"Finish up whatever crap this is and go home. Your father's worried about you, God knows why," Sugimura said.

With that, Sugimura walked away from the trio and exited the restaurant.

"Well he seemed nice," Ren said, finishing the last of his pizza.

"I really wish you hadn't seen that," Okumura said, eyes glued to the floor.

"Who was that Sugimura guy, anyway?"

"He's an, um, associate of my father. Also, the part where he talked about going on a date? That was just him kidding around. It wasn't serious, at all. Really."

"Right," Ren doubted.

"I should probably be getting home now, anyway."

"Don't get into a car with him," Goro said, much to Ren's surprise.

"What?"

"He couldn't have parked in front of the restaurant, that's prohibited. The closest place you could park a car is a two minute walk going from the right of here. Don't go in that direction, just head straight to the station.

There was a sense of hostility in Goro's voice, Ren noted. His brow was furrowed, and his mouth barely moved as he spoke to Okumura. Ren couldn't recall ever seeing his brother look like this, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

"O-Okay, I'll do that. Thanks for the advice," Okumura said. "Here, let me pay for this."

Okumura pulled out a pink, expensive-looking wallet embroidered with a cursive "O" and a skull covered in blood. In the time that it took Ren to process all of that, Okumura had placed a ten thousand yen bill on the table.

"Amamiya-kun, you can keep the change, if you want. Feel free to have the rest of my salad, too."

"Can do on both," Ren said, pulling Okumura's plate closer to him.

"Also, thanks for helping me, today. I don't care what people are saying, you really are a good person."

With the smallest hint of a smile, Okumura bowed to Ren and Goro, picked up her shovel, and quickly walked out of the restaurant.

"What did she mean by that? What are people saying about you?" Goro asked.

"I have no idea," Ren said with a shrug. Though it wasn't as if he had no idea from a lack of trying, on his part.

"I really have no idea what to make of her."

"Same here. She's kind of a weirdo. Probably would've been better to ignore her, like you said." Goro shot Ren a glare. "But she gave me money and food, so I guess she's not all that bad."

"Yeah, that would be all it'd take for you," Goro said, rolling his eyes and smiling.

* * *

Goro didn't say a word to Ren the entire train ride back to Shibuya, and vice versa. For Ren, Goro could tell that he was too preoccupied rudely eating his caprese salad on the train to talk, but the lack of dialogue on his end was mainly a result of contemplation. Not on everything that had happened today, he'd had his fill of that, but of how Ren had reacted to everything. Ren reacted to everything the same way that he did.

That shouldn't have been possible, though. It was Goro who had the crazy dream. It was Goro who twice saw the blue butterfly. It should only have been Goro pretending to not know as much as he did. Yet Ren awakened to a Persona at the same time as him; that couldn't have been a coincidence. It retroactively put all of his actions starting from Sunday into a different context.

As Goro unlocked the door to the apartment and the two of them walked inside, he came to realize that he had to be the one to bring it up. As potentially awkward as it might be, there was no way around it. Besides, he was a detective. Getting the truth out of people was his job, and "people" had to include his brother whenever necessary.

"I finally won," Ren said. Goro turned to him with an arched eyebrow.

"What?"

"I finally won something over you."

"I don't follow."

"When we were in that Velvet Room place, you said that you were the one dreaming. Well, now we know that I was dreaming, so I win."

"You win?"

"Glad you agree."

Getting the truth out of Ren was easier than Goro thought.

"Hey, hold on a second," Goro said. "If anything, all of this means that we were both dreaming."

"So?"

"So that means this is at least a draw."

"Yeah, I guess. I still didn't lose to you, though," Ren said with a smirk. Goro followed that by punching him on the arm, and then the two both started laughing.

"Can't believe we were keeping the same secret from each other," Goro said.

"Is it that strange? How do you wake up in the morning and go, 'Hey bro, I had a crazy dream where some guy told me I have to save the world. Do we have any miso soup?'" Ren asked.

"That would be a weird way to start the day, I'll give you that."

"So what do we do now, Goro?"

"Exactly what I said at the restaurant: we go back to that other world and try to figure out as much as we can. As for what comes after that, I have no idea, but at least we're in this, together."

"Yep. If we're gonna be clueless, let's be clueless, side by side."

Goro smiled at Ren's statement. He missed this. He really missed this.

* * *

_**November XX, 20XX** _

"I'm starting to get the impression… that you want to hurt me…" Ren said, re-adjusting himself.

"Shut up, back to me. You just wouldn't let me have my way. You just had to be a good samaritan and force the two of us into lending Okumura a hand. You didn't even know her, back then! What, were you only doing it because she's your type?

"Whatever it was, I guess the reasons don't matter when they all lead to the same conclusion: this is your fault. You made us help Okumura, and because of that, we ended up in that world and our halcyon days came to an end before they could even begin. Hope you're proud of yourself."

"Should I… not be?"

"Of course not! For all your talks about justice and making a difference, you gained shit all nothing. Well, nothing except an early grave."

"That's not true…"

"Oh? What else did you get that you're so proud of? A daily adrenaline rush? A means of ignoring your terrible predicament? An admittedly hot piece of ass?"

"I got… to spend more time with you…" Ren said.

Goro took a step back. No quip followed, no venomous words left his lips. He just stared at Ren, doing his best to digest those words without feeling sick.

"I hate everything… that led us to this point, Goro… and I have a lot of regrets… but the one thing I don't regret… is that I got to spend more time with you…"

"Me, too," Goro said after who knew how long. "That's why this is so hard, you know? Why don't you understand that, already?"

* * *

_**April 11, 20XX** _

_I am thou, thou art I…_

_Thou hast acquired a new vow._

_It shall become the wings of rebellion_

_that breaketh thy chains of captivity._

_With the birth of the_ Fool Persona _,_

_I have obtained the winds of blessing that_

_shall lead to freedom and new power…_

A beeping noise came out of Goro's pocket. Looking over at Ren, it seemed like half of that noise belonged to him, as well. Ren shot him a glance, and Goro shot him one back. They each pulled out their phones. Goro quickly saw that their suspicions were correct: there was a notification from that mysterious app.

"Nothing ventured, bro," Ren said. Goro nodded in agreement and pressed the notification bar on the screen. Immediately, Goro was taken not to the red and black eyeball from before, but a blank screen colored blue. Velvet blue. Goro could see Ren's eyes widening. The same thing had to be happening on his phone. Before either one could say anything, red text started appearing across the screen.

""youhavestablishedtheFoolConfidantwith REN AMAMIYA. fusingpersonasoftheFoolArcanawillresultinaboostofpowerfromArcanaBurst,"" read the text on Goro's phone, paired with an electronic voice that sounded like a mixture of the one from earlier and a young girl's.

""youhaveestablishedtheFoolConfidantwith GORO AKECHI. fusingpersonasoftheFoolArcanawillresultinaboostofpowerfromArcanaBurst," came an identical voice not from Goro's phone.

""""CONGRATULATIONS!"""" Both voices exclaimed. Immediately following that was a large "V" appearing on the screen coupled a jingle: "Doo, dododo do do do DOOOOOOO!"

"What the hell?" were the first words to leave Goro's lips.

"Couldn't have said it any better, myself," Ren said.

Looking back down at his phone, Goro saw that the screen had changed again. The background was the black and red eye, but now there were numerous icons across the screen and a BGM that sounded suspiciously like a LISALISALISA's "Beneath the Mask." One was a white jester mask with the word "Persona" written underneath in English. Next to that one was a microphone with the word "Navigashon" written underneath, also in English. Next to that one was what looked like two hands shaking with "Koopu" written underneath, also in English. There were several other icons, but all of them were grayed out.

"What do you make of this, Goro?" Ren asked.

"Hard to say," Goro said. "'Navigashon' must be a misspelling of 'Navigation.' That must be the function that lets us go in and out of that world. 'Persona,' well that's fairly obvious, but does its inclusion mean we can summon them, anywhere?"

"Let's find out."

At Ren's suggestion, the two pressed the "Persona" icon on their respective screens. Nothing happened. Their clothes didn't change, nor did their Personas appear behind them. Goro gave a sigh of relief whereas Ren gave a sigh of disappointment.

All that did happen was that Goro was taken to a new screen, one he assumed was also on Ren's phone. On the left half of the screen was a 3-D model of Robin Hood, posing dramatically. Tapping on the picture brought Goro to another new display that gave a brief synopsis of Robin Hood's mythology and identified it as a "Fool Persona," whatever that was.

Hitting the back button styled like a ball and chain bent into an arrow, Goro returned to the previous screen to keep observing it. Below Robin Hood's model was a fraction, "1/1." On the right half of the screen was a rectangle with an 8-bit sprite of Robin Hood inside. Said rectangle was also highlighted blue and had the English word "ACTIVE" written inside of it.

"As I thought, it just shows our Persona," Goro said.

"Weird that there's a fraction for just one thing, though," Ren said.

"Yeah, weird." The comment hung around in his head for a bit. He'd come back to it, later.

Returning to the first screen, Goro clicked on the last icon, the "Koopu" icon. Immediately, the screen changed to show a black and white picture of him in the outfit he wore in the other world sans plague mask, smiling smugly with his back turned. In front of the picture of him, drawn so that it looked to be part of the same image, was Ren, though he was dressed in his Shujin Academy uniform.

"Ren, in the 'Koopu' section, is the picture of you wearing your magic outfit, sans mask."

"Yep, and I'm giving a pretty cold glare, too," Ren said. "Looks kinda cool. Gonna have to try that one, sometime."

"You do that."

Going back to his phone, Goro took in more of the Koopu screen. Underneath the portrait was Ren's name written in kanji with the appropriate ruby characters underneath. Up in the top right corner was what looked like a playing card. The card had a red background and featured a black-colored man dressed like a court jester being bitten by a dog. At the very bottom of the card read the words "Le Mat." If Goro knew his French, and of course he did, then that roughly translated to "The Fool." The last part of the screen was filled with ten stars, one yellow and the other nine black. That was the end of it, now it was time to theorize.

First, there was the designation for this section of the app: Koopu. That didn't sound like any English word he'd ever heard of. Saying it in his head, though, he found himself pronouncing it like "Co-Op." Was that it? Occam's razor suggested that it was. The voice from earlier said that he and Ren had unlocked something called the "Fool Confidant," too. Putting all of it together, it had to mean that Goro and Ren had established some sort of connection with one another, and that was meant to strengthen them, in some way.

"Really weird stuff, right here," Ren said. "Think Morgana might know about any of this?"

"Hopefully, it will," Goro said, pocketing his phone. "Well, it's still kind of early. What do you want to do?"

"Hope you forgot how to beat me in _Brawl_."

"As if I could."

The two brothers relaxed for the rest of the evening, putting most of what had happened behind them to simply enjoy each other's company. The night grew late, and knowing what was ahead for them, Goro and Ren both went to bed.

* * *

As quickly as Ren fell asleep, he found himself waking up. Not in his bed, though, but in a prison cell. He knew that this wasn't part of a dream, though. The same angelic singing, the same rattling chains, the same blue coloring on everything. He was back in the Velvet Room.

At the very least, they had the sense to bring him there right at the bars instead of on the bed, like last time.

"Goro. You here, buddy?" Ren asked.

A small piece of glass poked its way out of the cell next to Ren's.

"I'm here, Ren," Goro said. "Guess those three want to talk to us about something. Four guesses what it is, and the first three don't count."

"Really? 'Cause all the stuff that happened today was my first guess."

"Smartass."

"Anyway, when do you think they'll-"

"Okay, break time's over, Inmates!" were the authoritative words shouted by Caroline. To answer Ren's interrupted question, now was when Caroline, Justine, and Igor would choose to spontaneously appear out of nowhere.

"Our master wishes to speak with you. It's for your own sake that you take his words to heart," Justine said.

"First, allow me to congratulate the two of you on all you've accomplished, today," Igor said.

"You'll excuse me if I don't feel very ecstatic," Goro said.

Justine slammed her clipboard against the bars to Goro's cell and told him that they won't tolerate such rudeness.

"It's quite alright, Justine," Igor said. "You might not be truly happy with what's happened, but awakening to a Persona is always grounds for praise. As you've already been told, Personas are the masks we wear to hide our true selves from the world. Now that you two can weaponize them, you can begin your training to save the world from ruin. Your rehabilitation can finally begin."

There he went, using those same words again. Ruin. Rehabilitation. For the first one, there had to be some sort of doomsday plot they were meant to stop, but it was still incredibly vague. For the second one, it probably had something to do with why he was in Tokyo, in the first place, but that wouldn't really explain why Goro was involved in this.

"Are you ever going to explain any of this stuff?" Ren asked.

"All in due time," Igor said.

"Let me ask another question: Ren and I both have this mystery app on our phone that's clearly connected to all of this. You made that, didn't you?" Goro asked.

"My, you _are_ intuitive," Igor laughed. "Yes, the Metaverse Navigation App is a tool I created to aid you and your brother. Using it, the two of you can travel between your reality and the reality of the Metaverse."

"Metaverse, you say…"

Ren could hear the gears turning in his brother's head. His own were doing the same. Now they knew the name of that other world: the Metaverse.

"Of course, as you've already discovered, the App can do more than just let you go to and fro the two worlds. As you proceed through your rehabilitation, you'll come to discover more of its abilities."

"So it's a learn as we go, kind of thing, then?" Ren asked. Igor nodded his head. "Can you at least tell us what this 'Koopu' thing is? We're kinda stumped on that one."

"You already figured out that you're doing this trial by fire, yet you think we'll tell you about that just because you ask?!" Caroline shouted.

"But of course," Igor said. Justine turned away from Ren, but not before he caught the faintest hint of red on her face.

"The Koopu, or 'Co-Op' menu, is where you keep track of your Confidants. I wasn't planning on telling either of you about this for a few days, but you surprised me by gaining each other as a Confidant, so quickly. I'll keep note to not underestimate your bond as siblings, in the future."

"What does a Confidant mean, though?" Goro asked.

"The path to rehabilitation is one you two must walk alone in a physical sense, but being alone in a spiritual sense would be far too difficult. To that end, you have been given the power to strengthen your hearts and souls through forming bonds with other people who are lost in the world, like you. Those wayward souls who would benefit you are the ones who will be known as your Confidants."

"So these Confidant things can be formed with any person on the street?"

"Not at all. As I said, only people who feel as lost in the world as you have the potential to become your Confidants. Since these people are so much like yourselves, the only way to connect with them is by forming a bond of mutual trust. Doing so will help you mature and give you the strength to combat ruin."

"So we have to save the world with the power of friendship. Great."

While not sharing in the sarcasm, Ren couldn't help but raise an eyebrow for the same reasons. The idea that becoming friends with people would help save the world was the kind of thing that only happened in fiction. Then again, everything that had happened today were the kinds of things that only happened in fiction, so he was at an impasse.

"Personas are the strength of your heart. The stronger the bonds that surround you, the more power your Personas will gain," Justine said.

"In other words, if you don't feel like dying anytime soon, just go and make some friends, already!" Caroline shouted.

"Indeed. You should be prepared to use even myself, or your ambitions will not come to fruition," Igor said.

"If you say so," Ren said.

"I'm pretty good at using people," Goro said. Igor gave a little laugh.

"We have a deal, then."

_I am thou, thou art I…_

_Thou hast acquired a new vow._

_It shall become the wings of rebellion_

_that breaketh thy chains of captivity._

_With the birth of the_ Jester Persona _,_

_I have obtained the winds of blessing that_

_shall lead to freedom and new power…_

A beeping noise went off. Suddenly, Ren felt a weight in his pocket. His phone? Ren reached into his pocket as fast and as well as he could with the handcuffs and eventually managed to get the object out. It was, indeed, his phone, and there was a notification for the Metaverse Navigation App. Ren quickly tapped it.

""youhaveestablishedtheJesterConfidantwith !G0R. fusingpersonasoftheJesterArcanawillresultinaboostofpowerfromArcanaBurst. CONGRATULATIONS!"" The same robotic, little girl voice from earlier said from his phone.

""youhaveestablishedtheJesterConfidantwith !G0R. fusingpersonasoftheJesterArcanawillresultinaboostofpowerfromArcanaBurst. CONGRATULATIONS!"" The voice said one more time. That must have been from Goro's phone.

"Alright, that's enough for one day. Get out of here, Inmates!" Caroline shouted.

With that, Ren was awake once more.


	5. For the Record

_**April 12, 20XX** _

Goro really wished that he'd get used to all of this supernatural business sooner rather than later. At the very least, he wanted to be able to go in and out of the Velvet Room without getting a headache, afterwards. Just another thing he'd need to talk to Igor, about.

Putting that aside, Goro showered, got dressed in his uniform, and sat down on the couch to wait for Ren to stop sleeping in and get ready, himself. While waiting, he pulled out his phone and went back to the mystery app, now named the "Metaverse Navigation App." As he thought, there wasn't anything new added since he went to sleep. That was fine. Goro's attention was drawn back to the Koopu menu, specifically the newest addition to it.

Obviously, Goro had noticed the weirdness behind Igor's Confidant. For starters, his name was spelt with symbols, an exclamation mark replacing the "I" and a zero replacing the "O." Ren's name wasn't written anything like that, yet Igor's was. The bio given for him was no better. All it said was that he was the master of the Velvet Room, but that didn't say much of anything. There was still so much that needed to be figured out, and Igor and that Velvet Room were at the center of it all.

That being said, there was no point in getting too worked up about it. As a detective, Goro knew that you needed to tackle a mystery one step at a time, and the first step had to be small. If you try to go after something big from the start, you just end up falling flat on your face like an incompetent moron. Goro was no incompetent moron. He'd get what he needed out of Igor, but only after he got into his head and broke him down, the magic man completely unaware of his manipulation, all the while. For now, he needed to deal with a small step: going back to the Metaverse and learning everything he could about it and that other Kamoshida.

"Anything new pop up there?" Goro didn't need to turn around to know that Ren was talking to him, but he did, anyway. They saw each other so little up until recently, why pass up a chance to look at him?

"Nope, nothing. Hopefully there'll be some kind of update once we go back into the Metaverse after-are those glasses?"

"Yeah. Didn't we go over them the other day?"

"But I thought Kamoshida broke them."

"He did. These are a new pair, obviously."

"You brought multiple pairs of glasses that you don't need?" Goro asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep," Ren said, as if the idea wasn't utterly ridiculous.

"How committed are you to this hipster chic thing?"

"I think this speaks for itself," Ren said, pushing up against the glasses he didn't need in any way, shape, or form.

Goro told Ren to hurry up and eat something, but he couldn't stop himself from having a sensible chuckle.

* * *

The train to Aoyama-itchome Station and the walk to Shujin Academy was, much to Goro's satisfaction, very uneventful. There was another report on the recent train derailment, some more commercials for LISALISALISA, but other than that, nothing happened. So far, things were going well.

As the two approached the school, Goro saw Haru standing by the school gate and waving at them. As of now, things were something else.

"Akechi-kun, Amamiya-kun, good morning!" Haru said as Goro and Ren approached her.

"Morning, senpai," Ren said.

"Morning," Goro said, making less effort to look her in the eye. "Did you get home without that guy?"

"Huh? Oh, oh, yes," Haru said.

"That's good, at least."

Haru smiled at him. Ren shot him a smirk, too. That was enough of that.

"Come on, we don't want to be late when we're standing a meter from the door," Goro said.

"True. I have the most to lose from being late, so I'm gonna take off. See you guys later," Ren said, running off into the school and away from Goro and Haru.

_Okay, but why, though?_ Goro thought to himself.

"So, should we head to class?" Haru asked.

"Might as well."

Goro headed inside the building, Haru walking right at his left. The whole thing annoyed him, to no end. This wasn't how he wanted things to be going. When he first came up with his plan, he knew that she'd be under the impression that they had built a rapport with one another; it'd be impossible for things to work if that weren't the case, after all. The one-sided rapport was there, but the context was all wrong. Goro wanted it to have been born from his own plotting and machinations, yet instead, it came to be from something that was completely out of his control. Things that he couldn't control were some of the things Goro hated more than anything else, more than a certain student council president, but notably less than something he refused to think about when he didn't have to.

"Akechi-kun, are you alright?" Haru asked. His face must have been showing too much.

"I'm fine. Just thinking about some stuff," Goro said.

"I've been thinking about stuff, too. After what happened yesterday, I was up all night running everything on playback again and again. It was all so crazy and scary, but also pretty cool, though not enough to outweigh the other stuff. I guess it'd be weirder if I didn't feel any of that, though.

"But it's okay! It's okay because I can use that for when we all go back to that world. If I use those feelings of fear as motivation, I know that I can help you and Amamiya-kun get those people to safety!"

"You're still on about that?" Goro asked.

"How could I not be? Even if it's a parallel world like you said, we still need to help those people, right? Amamiya-kun said, so, himself."

"You say that, but-hey, that reminds me, you never told me how you knew Ren's last name."

The two of them stopped walking. Haru raised an eyebrow at Goro, as if his statement was something unbelievably stupid. The nerve.

"Again, why wouldn't I know it? Everyone else does. Though now that I know what he's really like, I can't believe all the stuff that was said. Maybe it's all made up, or maybe there's more to the story. You're his brother, what do you say?"

"What the hell does that mean? Why do I have to say something? What are you calling into question? What the hell are you even talking about, Okumura?"

"You, you really don't know?"

"Goddammit, what am I supposed to know?!"

With notable hesitation, Haru pulled out her phone and fiddled around with it for a few seconds before handing it to Goro.

It took Goro three seconds to take in what he was looking at.

It took Goro ten seconds to figure out the real meaning behind it.

It took one second for him to drop the phone and run up to the second floor.

* * *

Just like yesterday, Ren heard people whispering all around him. Just like yesterday, Ren saw people staring at him. This must be what déjà vu felt like, Ren guessed. For a moment, he started to wonder if a day had even really passed, but then he saw that he wasn't wearing the same pair of socks that he wore yesterday, so that cleared things up.

"...believe he came two days in a row…"

"...cared about keeping up appearances?"

"...not even so much as look at me…"

"...wasn't even doin' nothing, so buzz off!"

That was different. That wasn't a whisper, and it didn't sound like it even had anything to do with him. Ren wasn't much of a nosy person, and someone having a random conversation didn't mean anything on its own, but then there was the fact that this was the first time he heard someone in the school talking about something other than him.

So Ren turned away from his class and headed over to the faculty office, where he heard the yelling coming from. Hiding himself at the corner, Ren poked his head around to catch sight of who was talking. He recognized one of the people as the social sciences teacher, the bespectacled, overall-wearing Mr. Ushimura. The boy he was talking to was an unknown. The blonde hair and T-shirt saying "ZOMG" seemed vaguely familiar, but they were the kinds of things that anyone could have.

"And another thing: how many times do we have to keep telling you to get that crap out of your hair?" Ushimaru asked at the top of his voice.

"It ain't against the rules just because you don't like it. You'd probably just kick me outta here if things worked like that," the boy said with a scowl.

"Don't get smart with me, Sakamoto!"

Yes. Now Ren remembered. Sakamoto. The guy Takamaki got into a fight with, yesterday. Seemed like getting into arguments was a superpower of his.

"Look, for the last time, I wasn't attacking Takamaki. We got in a fight, and yeah, maybe I said some shit that was a little too stupid, but all we did was yell at each other. Who the hell even told you this crap?"

"Someone whose word I trust far more than that of a delinquent like you."

"Yeah, that's fair." Ren had to agree with that.

"What did I say about getting smart with me? You want me to call your mother and tell her you're mouthing off to your teachers?"

"H-Hey, come on! That ain't fair!" Once again, Ren had to agree.

The two went back and forth a little more, but Ren tuned it out as thoughts of what to do next raced through his head. There was a guy walking around with something in his hands. That would work. Ren walked over to him, took the objects out of his hands, replaced it with some of the change he got from Okumura's money, and headed back to Sakamoto and Ushimaru to put the plan into effect.

"What the hell?!" The plan being to spill his newly obtained drink on the floor near Ushimaru's shoes.

"Ah, ah, ah geez!" Ren said with fake franticness.

"You little punk!"

"I'm sorry! I just, you know, wanted to get a soda before homeroom started, but I took a super long time to pick, and then I started running to class-"

"Your class is on the other side of the floor!"

"Ah, ah geez! I'm sorry, it's only my second day! I'm sorry!"

Ren pulled out the second of his new objects, a small bunch of napkins, and started cleaning up the spill as best as he could. Or at least as best as he felt like.

"You little… speaking of homeroom, it starts in two minutes. Both of you hurry to your classes, already!"

Ushimaru stormed off with a poor attempt of making it look like an accident that he tried to step on Ren's fingers.

"Why'd you do that, man? You know he's just gonna go after you later, right?" Sakamoto asked.

"Probably. What really matters, though, is that he's not going to go after you, and he's not going to try and drag your mom into this."

Sakamoto stared at Ren as he kept wiping the floor. That was to be expected. Then he started laughing. That was not to be expected.

"Sorry, sorry. It's not really funny, it's just _crazy_ that you're just stickin' up for me, outta the blue like that."

"Nothing crazy about common courtesy."

"Guess you really are new to this school."

Ren didn't know what to make of that comment, that comment which implied something obvious that he didn't know, for some reason. Instead, he just shrugged his shoulders and tossed the wet napkins towards a garbage can behind him without turning around. They fell on the floor several meters away from the can.

"I'm Ren Amamiya," Ren said, extending a hand.

"Um, Ryuji Sakamoto," Sakamoto said, as if there was something strange about that. Nevertheless, Sakamoto still took his hand and shook it with passion.

"You know, man, you're a helluva lot better than I thought you'd be. Thought things'd be even worse with you around, but here you are, actually being a nice guy."

"I know, right? I surprise myself, sometimes. By the way, what are you talking about?"

"Come on, man, no need to play dumb. I ain't gonna hold it against you; not like I'd have any right to judge. Us troublemakers gotta stick together, you know?"

"No, I don't know. I know what you're talking about, but I don't know why you're talking about it," Ren said, his face contorted into a scowl.

"What do you mean-wait, you didn't know? Did they do this without even telling you?! What the shit, man?! That's effed up!" Sakamoto shouted.

"What is… effed up? What? No, no, what is going on?"

"Might as well show you."

With notable frustration, Sakamoto pulled out his phone and fiddled around with it for a few seconds before handing it to Ren.

On the screen was an email. An email that had the picture that was taken of him when he was brought to the police station. An email that contained a detailed account of his assault charge, expulsion, and probation. An email that, if it was sent to Sakamoto, had to have been sent to lots of other people.

"What the hell?" Ren didn't know if he said it out of frustration or in a meaningless attempt at calming himself.

"I know, right?! I can't believe they'd do something like this! Who the hell do they think they are?!"

"I have to find Goro," Ren said, barely paying Sakamoto any mind.

Ren ran off from the scene and headed to the stairs. He didn't pay attention to Sakamoto's yelling, nor did he pay attention to the stairs that he now perfectly understood the meaning of. All that mattered at that moment was that he needed to get to Goro and talk about all of this. Because of that, it was highly convenient that Ren ran into Goro in the hallway before he could even take one step, downstairs.

"Goro, you know, don't you?" Ren asked after taking just one look at him.

"Well, that answers my question," Goro said. "Now we both know that someone here has gone out of their way to screw with us."

"'Us'?"

"Yes, 'us'. I counted the number of school email addresses your records were CC'd to, and the total number is equal to the number of students here, minus two. Put two and two together, and it's clear that whoever leaked your records went out of their way to make sure the two of us would be caught, unawares."

"Shit." Ren could come up with no other words to describe it.

"Hey, Amamiya!" Sakamoto shouted, running up behind Ren. "Look, man, I know you're upset, but you kinda took my phone, and-why the hell're you talkin' to _him_?"

"Goro? What's wrong with that?" Ren asked. Sakamoto glared at Goro before taking his phone out of Ren's hands.

"Homeroom's starting soon. Talk to you later, or whatever," Sakamoto said, walking off presumably to his class.

"I know it wouldn't be hard for someone to hate you, but is there a reason Sakamoto does?"

"Who cares?" Goro asked. "There's clearly more important stuff to worry about, right? As if the Metaverse wasn't causing enough of a headache, now we have to deal with _this_. I swear to God-"

"I know, Goro. It sucks; take it from the guy who got sold out. Even so, we can't do anything about it, right now, so for now-"

"For now?"

"-Sakamoto's right, homeroom's going to start soon."

Goro clicked his tongue, turned around, and stomped down the stairs. It wasn't as if Ren wasn't angry, but showing it would just feed into the nonsense everyone apparently already knew. Goro at least had the luxury of being able to express himself.

Ren just hoped he wouldn't do anything too rash with it.

* * *

The entire day, Goro was basically a statue. He talked to no one, he listened to nothing, he kept himself in his own world, too caught up in his own emotions to give anyone or anything the time of day.

Once the last class ended, the statue became mobile. Goro walked out of his classroom at a pace with a calmness eerily contradicted by the scowl on his face.

"Goddammit," Goro mumbled under his breath as he walked through the halls. "Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit. Goddammit.

"Goddammit!" Goro shouted, throwing the door to the principal's office open.

"I-I'll call you back, sir," Principal Kobayakawa said, hanging up his cellphone and putting it down on his desk. "Akechi-kun, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"A goddamn explanation, for starters."

"Pardon?"

"Did you think I wouldn't find out? Did you think that I was just going to tune everything out because this was my last year, here? Did you think I wouldn't give a damn about you trying to screw over my brother?!"

Kobayakawa started breaking out in a cold sweat, dabbing his folds with a handkerchief. Good. Someone like him deserved to sweat.

"S-So you are talking about Amamiya-kun's records, then?" Kobayakawa asked.

"Obviously! That information was supposed to be private! Who the hell gave you the right to-"

"Y-You've got it all wrong, Akechi-kun!"

Goro threw his hands onto Kobayakawa's desk and leaned in close. He was looking at the man so closely that he could almost see every individual bead of sweat rolling down his face.

"Explain," Goro said.

"I explicitly told all of the faculty that no one was supposed to learn about Amamiya-kun's records, so I'm as shocked by this as you are. I didn't come to you about it because, well, you didn't come to me about it, so I assumed you just didn't care."

"I didn't come to you about it because I didn't know about it!"

"I understand that, now! It's clear that someone went out of their way to make sure that you and your brother wouldn't know about this, immediately, but again, I had nothing to do with it. The whole reason I allowed Amamiya-kun to come to Shujin Academy in the first place was to eventually boost the school's reputation by toting it as a place where hardened criminals can be rehabilitated. What would I have to gain from making life harder for him?"

Even though Kobayakawa basically confirmed Goro's suspicions for why he agreed to let Ren go to Shujin, he still wanted to punch him in the face for saying it. That wouldn't get him anything other than momentary happiness and permanent expulsion, though.

"Okay, I believe you," Goro said. "I think I know you well enough to know when you're lying to me, and it feels like you're being honest about this."

"Really? Oh, you don't know how much of a relief that is, Akechi-kun!"

"The rest of the faculty aren't so lucky, though. I will get to the bottom of this, and once I find out who's responsible, they're definitely going to wish they never even dreamed of messing with my brother. The day only just ended, so I'd advise you to call a staff meeting and get the scumbag who did it to confess now. Otherwise, things will get _very_ ugly for us all," Goro said, smiling brightly the entire time.

"I-I'll keep that in mind," Kobayakawa stammered.

Goro smiled. Nothing better than watching a pig sweat. As he left the office, he could at least take satisfaction in that.

A satisfaction that faded away when he saw Haru standing outside holding a shovel.

"What are you doing here, Okumura?" Goro asked.

"I saw you run out of class all of a sudden, and I wanted to know what you were doing," Haru said, looking down at the floor.

"And I'm betting you weren't just standing here."

Haru didn't answer.

"God, of all the things for you to overhear-"

"Don't feel embarrassed, please!" Haru cut in. "I think it's great that you care so much for your brother, Akechi-kun. Families who care for each other are harder to find than some people think, so it's always nice to see it go how it should."

Haru kept looking down at the floor, her head hanging even lower than before. Goro looked at her and felt something in the manner of some thing. Not sympathy, not empathy, certainly not compassion; whatever it was, Goro couldn't deny that it made him actually listen to what Haru was saying.

No need to care about that, anymore.

"I gotta go, Okumura," Goro said. "Ren and I are heading back to the other world."

Goro turned away from Haru and headed for the stairs, either not noticing that Haru was frantically following him, or simply choosing not to mention it.

* * *

Ren stood in front of the school gate by himself, no one bothering to give him the time of day. He didn't know what was keeping Goro, but in all honesty, he was glad to have this time to himself. It made it easier to take in all of the rampant bombshells that kept getting thrown his way. Still wasn't easy, but it wasn't as hard as it could be.

_Everyone knows who I am_ , Ren thought to himself. _That's what all the staring and whispering was about, why Takamaki was giving me a hard time from the get go, why Okumura-senpai seemed to be so cautious around me when we first met. Guess Kamoshida was right about how I shouldn't expect to just put everything behind me._

"Kamoshida did say something like that, didn't he?" Ren asked himself. It warranted suspicion beyond coincidence.

"Yeah, Kamoshida did say some stuff to you, didn't he? Definitely warrants suspicion beyond coincidence," a new voice said. Ren turned his head to see Goro walking over to his side, Okumura trailing right behind him with the same shovel she had when they went into the Metaverse.

"You two sure took your time," Ren said.

"I had a few things to take care of. You know how busy a self-made man like myself can get," Goro said.

"Right."

"U-Um, Amamiya-kun, I'm really sorry," Okumura said. "I was acting a little cold to you yesterday because of your arrest, and I only just found out that you didn't know everyone knew, so you must have thought I was being a weird jerk, though even if you did know, you would have just thought I was being a normal jerk, so-"

"Senpai, stop," Ren cut in. "Yes, I thought you were being a weirdo, but I never thought you were being a jerk. Plus, it's not like I can blame you for not trusting an alleged felon. It's annoying that no one feels like getting my side of story, but I can't blame them, and I can't blame you. I don't hold anything against you, honest."

"Really? That's such a relief. Thank you," Okumura said with a small bow.

"If we're done here, can we please get a move on?" Goro asked. "I know we're not exactly on a deadline, but there's no need to waste time."

"Akechi-kun's right! Let's hurry back into that other world!" Okumura exclaimed.

"You're not going, you know."

Okumura's face fell.

"Wh-What? Where is this coming from, all of a sudden?"

"All of a sudden? What do you-wait. Oh, I see the problem. When I said that we were going back there, you thought I meant 'we three,' even though I only meant 'we two,'" Goro said, moving a finger back and forth between himself and Ren.

"But why can't I come with you?"

"Because you're dead weight," Goro said without hesitation.

"Dude!" Ren shouted.

Ren grabbed Goro by the arm and pulled him over to the side, ignoring whatever sort of expression Okumura might have been making, at that moment.

"What?" Goro asked, looking far too dumbfounded.

"Don't 'What?' me, Goro. Haven't you ever heard of manners, before?"

"Hey, tell Okumura that. She's the one who couldn't read the room and tried to thrust her own narrative onto us. Don't tell me you actually _want_ her to come with us?"

"Of course not. Bringing Okumura-senpai along would be a terrible idea, I'm with you on that, but there's such a thing as tact."

"Which you clearly need to work on, Ren," Goro said.

Ren raised an eyebrow, not at all sure about what Goro expected him to respond to. Then Goro pointed behind Ren, directing his attention to Okumura, who had undoubtedly overheard everything. It seemed that he didn't move Goro as far away as he thought.

"Et tu, Amamiya-kun?" Okumura asked.

"Look, Senpai, I'm just trying to be practical about this," Ren said. "You don't have a Persona, meaning you won't be able to fight Shadows or Demons or whatever as well as us if you're only going in there, shovels blazing."

"You're just not strong enough, Okumura," Goro said.

"Oh yeah?!"

Pouting, Okumura threw her shovel to the ground and bent down at the sidewalk. Ren had no idea what she was doing, and when she took off her shoes, he simply felt even more confused. Okumura closed her eyes, took in a breath, then let the breath go and opened her eyes before lifting up her heels, standing entirely on the balls of her feet. After a few seconds, she lifted her feet up even further until she was standing entirely on her tiptoes, her face contorting from what had to have been excruciating pain. Nevertheless, she kept that position for fifteen seconds before letting out a tiny cry and falling back onto her feet.

"I'm sure Mr. Cameron would be very proud of you," Goro said. "That being said, ballet skills probably won't help with your ability to stab monsters in the face."

"You don't know that!" Okumura said as she put her shoes back on. "I just want to help, however I can. I came with you when this started, I should be allowed to stay with you until it's over, shouldn't I?"

Ren couldn't stop himself from agreeing with that. On some level, he knew that Okumura was entitled to see this through, but it really was a bad idea for her to come along. Gumption was no substitute for actual skill, no matter how much people often made it out to be.

"On second thought, fine, you can come along," Goro, of all people, said.

"Really?" Okumura asked with a smile.

"Really?" Ren asked with doubt.

"Provided you satisfy my condition, of course." There it was.

"What condition?" Okumura asked.

"It's quite simple, really. By the end of the day, you need to tell us what's going on between you and that Sugimura guy from yesterday."

Ren could practically hear Okumura's eyes widen.

"What?"

"Come on, that should be an easy request, right? I'm not even asking you to tell me right now, just by the end of the day. If we're going to be working together, it'd be useful to know more about one another, wouldn't it?"

Okumura started looking at the ground again, twisting her hands around the handle of the shovel, all the while.

"Okay," Okumura eventually said. "If that's what you want, then we have a deal."

"Excellent," Goro said. Ren wasn't sure how true that actually was.

" _Now_ let's get started," Ren said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"Amamiya-kun, when did you get that app?" Okumura asked.

"Hm? Oh, right. Um, last night. Happened completely out of nowhere. Scared the crap outta me, it really did."

After Okumura nodded in understanding, Ren opened the Metaverse Navigation App and clicked on the microphone icon, opening up the "Navigation" menu. The next step in the process was an easy one. Through their fiddling around with the app, Ren and Goro had discovered that what triggered their initial entrance into the Metaverse to begin with was the three of them saying specific words, all words that were saved within a search history. All Ren needed to do was pull up those keywords: "KAMOSHIDA", "SHUJIN ACADEMY", and "CASTLE".

Once that was finished, Ren hit enter, and the world warped around them. Just for a second, though. Still, a second was all that was needed to bring them back to the mysterious castle of the Metaverse they were in just yesterday.

"Your clothes! They changed again!" According to Okumura, it also only took a second for that to happen.

"You jelly?" Ren asked.

"Knock it off," Goro said before Okumura could answer. "We're at the entrance to the castle instead of on the other side of the drawbridge, like before. The location where you activate the app in our world must determine where you'll end up in the Metaverse."

"'Metaverse'?" Okumura asked.

"That's what this world is called. The name came with the app, don't question it." A serviceable answer, Ren supposed.

"Well, let's not stand around here, anymore! The exit we used should be right around here. We can use it to get inside and meet back up with Morgana-chan."

Ren and Goro nodded in agreement, and three took off for the exit they used yesterday. It took only a few seconds of searching to locate the ventilation shaft, still as open as ever. Ren was about to jump up and start crawling through to the other side, but stopped himself short when a familiar face appeared.

"Wow, you all really came back!" Morgana, the familiar face, said as he jumped out of the vent.

"Morgana-chan!" Okumura cheered.

"Haru, it's great to see you, again. Great to see you, too, Ren. And Goro… so how are you guys doing?"

"Screw you, too, I guess," Goro said.

"What are you doing out here, Morgana?" Ren asked.

"The Shadows all started getting antsy, so I figured you guys must have come back. Looks like I was right on the money," Morgana said.

"Of course! We needed to come back and save all those people from the Metaverse, after all!" Okumura said.

"What do you mean by-wait, did you say Metaverse? You learned the name of this world? Without my guiding brilliance?"

"Yes, what a shocker that you're not as good as you think you are," Goro said with a roll of the eye.

"I don't _have_ to help you, you know!" Morgana shouted.

"Both of you calm down, please," Ren said. Goro and Morgana each shot a look towards the other person that said "Tell _him_ that!", yet they still complied.

"So you want to free the slaves, right?" Morgana asked, only Okumura giving an enthusiastic nod. "Alright, that can work out. We'll head over there, and I'll try and teach you a few things about phantom thievery. Just don't try and fall too far behind."

"We'll do our best," Ren said.

Showtime.

* * *

A quick crawl through the ventilation shaft brought Goro and company back into the castle. There weren't any Shadows in the entrance hall, so they were able to pass through it and head back into the underground passage without resistance. That was lucky.

Upon entering the underground passage, the group quickly came across two Masked Knights walking back and forth. That was not lucky.

"Hide!" Morgana shouted.

"Don't have to tell us, twice," Goro said as the four of them hid behind an iron door.

"Now's the part where you go beat them up, right?" Haru asked.

"Not quite. Now's the time for a lesson in how to fight the best way, possible," Morgana said. "What do you remember about these guys from yesterday?"

"Not much outside of them being able to turn into monsters," Ren said.

"Right, and they do that by removing their masks, just like how you need to do that to summon your Personas. One of the big differences, though, is that we're in complete control of our powers, whereas their existences are in constant flux. Have that affected by an outside source, and they'll lose focus for a bit."

"Right, right," Haru said. "Also, what?"

"If we take off their masks before they can, we can get the jump on them. Obviously," Goro said.

"Oh. Oh! That makes sense."

"Alright, they have their backs turned. Go, now!"

Goro and Ren turned to one another. They nodded their heads and took off towards their prey. Ren was the first to reach a Masked Knight. Putting his enhanced physical abilities to good work, Ren jumped on its back and ripped its mask off. The Masked Knight exploded into a mass of dark energy that re-shaped itself into the floating jack-o'-lantern. Ren quickly matched it in kind, ripping off his own mask to summon Arsene.

Goro couldn't stop himself from feeling impressed. So much so that he let himself get distracted long enough for the second Masked Knight to take notice of him.

"Shit," Goro said, perfectly summing up the situation.

"Don't stop!" Morgana shouted, running over to Ren's side. "Even if they see you, you still have a small window before they fully register you!"

"Never mind, then!" Goro almost felt like thanking it. Almost.

Goro threw a hand onto the Masked Knight's mask and, with all of his strength, ripped it off. Just like the other one, the Masked Knight exploded into a mass of dark energy, this time taking on the form of a small skeleton wearing a trench coat and wielding a straight razor.

"I'll cut you up, heeho!" Skeleton Man exclaimed.

"I'm sure you will."

Goro ripped off his mask and summoned Robin Hood behind him, quickly sending him after the Skeleton Man. Robin Hood swept at its legs with its bow, knocking it down to the ground with a thud. The Skeleton Man quickly recovered, jumped up into the air with a backflip, and fired a blast of dark energy out of its mouth. Robin Hood, with its own masterful reflexes, brought up its bow with enough speed to fire off an arrow of light for a counterattack, creating a small cloud of smoke. Goro thought he was handling things pretty well, but then he saw the Skeleton Man jump through the cloud and cut Robin Hood's arm.

A shockwave ran through Goro's system, like someone just punched him in the face.

_Or cut me on the arm_ , Goro thought as he looked himself over in shock. On his right arm was none other than a bleeding cut in the exact same spot and of the exact same length that was just dealt to Robin Hood. It was as if the two of them were cut at the exact same time.

"Ha! Gotcha! Gotcha good, heeho!" Skeleton Man laughed. "Let's see how the rest of you bleeds, heeho!"

The Skeleton Man ran forward at Robin Hood, ready to cut it up again. Goro wouldn't have that. He refused to have any of that. Robin Hood answered his desires by picking up a nearby barrel and throwing it at the Skeleton Man, knocking him to the floor.

"You picked the wrong day to piss me off, pal," Goro said with a scowl. Robin Hood stomped on the Skeleton Man's torso, aimed its bow at its head, and fired one off, right between the eyes. It didn't take much longer for it to fade into nothingness.

"Goro, Morgana and I are done with our guy. Looks like you're done, too, so let's-holy shit, you're bleeding!" Ren said as he and Morgana walked over to Goro.

"It's just a flesh wound, albeit one that hurts a great deal," Goro said as Robin Hood returned to being a mask.

"How did that happen?! When did you get hit?!" Haru asked as she ran over.

"That's what I'm wondering. That little thing never got anywhere near me, yet here I am, making a deposit at the bloodbank."

"If that's the case, then it's just because your Persona got attacked," Morgana said, annoyingly nonchalantly.

"""What?""" Goro, Ren, and Haru said in unison.

"Don't give me that. Personas are extensions of your will, so anything that happens with them is a reflection on yourself. That means if anything injures them, you feel the same injury. That's basic stuff, right there."

"Last I checked, we didn't exactly have a manual," Ren said.

"Thanks for that, by the way," Goro said.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know you two were lucky enough to not get hit once before we met?" Morgana asked.

"You really are bad luck, then."

"Don't blame me for your lack of skills!"

"God, I hate that this is becoming a regular thing," Ren said with an audible groan.

"Let's focus on what's really important: Akechi-kun's wound!" Haru said. "We need to find some first aid somewhere and treat the wound before it gets infected!"

"Right, I _guess_ we need to do that," Morgana said. Goro very much wanted to hit it. "We don't need a first aid kit, though. I can take care of it. There's a room we can use up ahead where we won't be bothered."

"If you say so," Goro said.

* * *

As it turned out, Morgana was right to say so. Not far from them was what appeared to be a small dining room that the four ducked into. Goro and Ren sat down next to each other at a table, Haru sat across from Goro with an annoyingly concerned look on her face, and Morgana climbed up on top of the table.

It then started to lick itself.

"You have got to be kidding me," Goro said.

"Um, Morgana-chan, is now really the best time for that?" Haru asked.

"He's pretty flexible," Ren said.

"Don't encourage it!" Goro shouted. "What the hell are you doing while I'm bleeding out here, you stupid cat?!"

"I am not a cat!" Morgana shouted back. Two seconds later, to perfectly contrast that declaration, Morgana coughed up a hairball.

"Oh my God."

"Okay, now just dab that on your wound, and you're good to go."

"Oh my God!"

"Hey, I don't feel too good about it, either, what with how much it undermines me _not_ being a cat, and all. I'm not trying to mess with you, though. This will really help you take care of that cut. Honest."

Goro wanted to do nothing other than follow his instincts and slap the hairball away, shove Morgana into a barrel, and leave it trapped in there, for all eternity. He wanted to do that so badly, but a small part of him understood that that would be the wrong way to go about things. Between the four of them, Morgana had the strongest connection to the Metaverse, so if it said something about how it worked, it made sense to try and go along with it. At least until he could poke holes in the logic of it all.

As Goro picked up the hairball, he prayed to be able to shoot the biggest holes imaginable through this.

"It's glowing. Goddammit, it's glowing," Goro said. The hairball was, indeed, glowing, glowing a pale green light. As it kept glowing, Goro's wound became smaller and smaller, until it eventually disappeared, altogether; the tear in his clothing was even mended, as well. After a few seconds, the hairball vanished in his hands, but by then, Goro's arm looked as if nothing had ever happened to it.

"Healing hairballs. How about that?" Ren said with a smirk.

"Wipe that look off your damn face, already," Goro said.

"Well, it worked, didn't it? You should at least be happy for that," Haru said.

"Then why do I still feel sick?"

As if the universe wanted to give Goro an explanation that wasn't a witty retort, the scenery shifted all around them. The table and a few seats stayed, but the dank brickwork of the dining room was replaced with the imagery of a room equally depressing: a classroom.

"What the hell?!" Goro shouted. The scenery shifted back to normal as soon as the words left his lips. Ren and Haru looked equally confused, but Morgana didn't seem to have a single reaction. If it didn't want to incur Goro's wrath, it'd be a good move for it to provide an explanation.

"I don't feel like getting on your bad side, so let me explain," Morgana said. "You see, there are certain parts of a Palace where the ruler's cognition is weaker, resulting in parts of your world bleeding through. That kind of place is called a 'Safe Room', and while we're in here, the Shadows won't be able to detect us; it's actually why I chose to do the healing in here."

"Wait, wait, back up," Goro said. "'Palace'? 'Cognition'? I'm assuming that a Palace is something like a specific section of the Metaverse, but what does cognition have to do with anything?"

"Huh? What's that? _I_ know something _you_ don't? How is _that_ possible?" Morgana asked with a big grin.

"You just want me to hurt you, don't you?"

"In all seriousness, though, could you answer the question, Morgana?" Ren asked.

"Fine. Feels like we'll be here a while, so just let me get comfortable." Morgana said.

Morgana reached into a pouch on its utility belt and pulled out two items, a Cuban cigar and a gold lighter with a picture of an Abyssinian cat's face on it. Goro had no words as Morgana put the cigar in its mouth and put the lit lighter against the end of it. He somehow had a negative amount of words when Morgana, rather than let out a puff of smoke, bit down on the cigar and swallowed a piece of it.

The smell of chocolate began wafting through the room. Goro was starting to hate everything.

"First things first: what do you all think the Metaverse is?" Morgana asked.

"It's a parallel universe, isn't it?" Haru asked.

"Close, but no… well, you know. The Metaverse is a completely different world from the one you live in, but not in a 'Universe A, Universe B', kind of way."

"So you're saying that the Metaverse, while a separate reality, doesn't make up an entire universe, on its own. Even though this isn't our world, being here still means that we're within our own, overarching reality, making this some kind of pocket dimension within our own reality."

"Pretty much, yes."

"If that's how it is, then how does it exist? What sustains the Metaverse? What's a Palace, in reference to that?"

"The answer to all of this is human cognition. The Metaverse is a world shaped by the wants and needs of people, and a Palace is formed by someone having all of that to a degree that far exceeds most other people's. A Palace is their desires made manifest, a perfect reflection of their inner self."

"Just like a Persona," Ren said. "Oh my God."

"Th-Then that means-That means we're inside Mr. Kamoshida's mind!" Haru exclaimed.

Morgana bit off another piece of his chocolate cigar.

Goro needed a whole lot more.


End file.
